T*rn 

#382 


Duke  University  Libraries 

Providential  as 
Conf  Pam  12mo  #388 


D'mosias 


A    TIMEL.Y    PUBLICATION. 

At  the  principal  Literary  Depots,  and,  by   the  quaul 

Magazlvk  STRErsr,   cm   be  procured  a   pamphlet,   eu- 

!'i:ovmK\TiAL  A.spKtr  a.m.  Saictary   Tkxdkxcy  ok  thk 

Crisis.'"     Tbe  author— an  old  citizen— designed  this 

work >s  the  means  of  contributing  to   Hvo   result.-;,   conducive 

to  the  interest  of  our  Republic,  viz  : 

I.  and  chiefly,  to  correct  public  opinion  in   Europe,   con- 
cerning the  character  of  our  people,  the  practical  opera- 
tion oi  our  prominent  institution  and -the  magnitude  of 
our  national  resources  :or,  as  an  antidote  to  the  libelous 
P'lblicatious  which  have  so  1-.: 
abroad  : 
nd,  to  demonstrate  to  our  Cotton  Plaxtskb  the  pripablv 
expediency  of  retaining  their  cotton  during  the  existing 
blockade,  and  of  burning  any  portion   thereof.  tie 
tureof  which  may  be  menaced  : 
I,  to  augument.  if  possible,  the  confidence  of  our  people 
and  especially  our  troops,  in   our  ultimate  triumph.  thus 
rendering  the  latter  still  more  formidable  : 
I    'ulh.  to  guard  against  a  return  to   that  literary,  comtt* 

and  financial  vassalage  to  our  euemi.v-;,  which  has  hith- 
erto so  deplorably  retarded  the  development  of  our 
boundless  resource 

profound  bigotry  and  fatuity  of 
zens  of  K.'ntucky.  Missouri,   Maryland,   and  small   poi  - 
lions  of  Virginia  and  Tei  .ling  to   the 

suicidal  idea  of  continued  polii 
malignant  enemies. 
1 1  the  author  has  been  to  some    extent   successful  in  accon 
Og  the  contemplated  design,  th.re  can  be  but  one  opinion 
.  intelligent  persons  relative  to  the  expediency  of  giving 
mphJet  a  wide  circulation,  e?pociaIly   in  Europe  and 
;  cotton  planters. 
NTew  Orleans.  October,  1861. 


PROVIDENTIAL   ASPECT 


SALUTARY   TENDENCY 


EXISTING  CRISIS 


1  In  each  event  of  life,  how  clear 
Thy  ruling  hand  I  see!" 


NEW  ORLEANS: 

Picayuns  OffC3  Print,  6-3  Camp  street 


>;>?B*K»  «ceordi»t;  Co  Act  of  Congress,  iu  th«  year  1861',  by  Isa.ao  Kmnwsr,  in  &je 
C!«rk'*  Offe*  «f  *h«  C.  S.  District  Court  of  Lo\u»i«H*. 


PROVIDENTIAL  ASPECT 


fT3*$> 


SALUTARY   TENDENCY 


EXISTING    CRISIS 


In  ordinary  times,  it  becomes  those  whose  aversion  to  the  responsi- 
bility of  public  office  has  served  to  restrict  their  acquaintance  with 
national  and  state  affairs,  and  who  can  make  no  pretensions  to  ripe 
scholarship,  to  leave  with  men  whose  taste] 'thus  leads  them,  the  sole 
management  of  such  matters.  But  when  great  political  exigencies 
arise,  every  patriotic  citizen,  however  humble  his  ability,  should  feel 
•y^  ^Impelled  to  contribute  his  migfcL  towards  a  salutary  solution  of  the 
gigantic  issues  rising  up  in  their  sublime  proportions,  and  severely  tax- 
ing the  vast  resources  of  even  the  most  experiencedjand  profound  states- 
man. To  deny  that  such  a  demand  for  individual  effort  now  confronts 
and  perplexes  us,  would  bo  to  plead  ignorance1] of  the  multitudinous 
events  which  throng  the  present  era,  and  will  render  it  memorable  on 
the  historic  page. 

The  captivating  rhetoric  and  brilliant  imagery  "of  the  gifted  and  cul- 
tivated orator  will  enchant  the  developed  intellect,  while  the  homely 
phrases  of  the  unlettered  stump-speaker,  are  far  better  adapted  to  the 
comprehension  of  the  masses.  I  therefore j  venture  to  hope  that  in 
striving  to  expose  fallacies,  the  inculcation  of  which  has  culminated  so 
disastrously,  I  may,  to  a  very  limited  extent,  subserve  the  public  good. 

Being  aware  of  the  impenetrability  of  bigoted  minds,  I  solicit  the 
candid  and  unprejudiced  attention  of  those  only  who  are  sufficiently  devel- 
oped, mentally,  to  appreciate  the  importance  of  attaining  philosophical 
knowledge  oUjall  momentous  subjects,  never  accepting,  second-hand, 
abstract  and  superficial  interpretations  thereof. 


[4] 

None  of  the  latter  will,  I  presume,  question  the  fact  that  Truth  is 
eternal  and  Error  temporal — consequently  that  all  indulging  the  latter, 
will,  sooner  or  later,  here  or  hereafter,  be  compelled  to  abandon  it  and 
accept  the  former,  despite  the  mortification  of  confessing  their  previous 
delusion,  and  its  deplorable  hindrance  to  their  intellectual  advance- 
ment. Neither  can  any  enlightened  person  assume  that  both  truth  and 
error,  on  a  given  subject,  can  occupy  one's  mind  at  the  same  time.  It 
therefore  follows  that  so  long  as  one  continues  to  cherish  error,  he  thus 
precludes  progress  in  knowledge:  hence  the  expediency  of  rigidly  scru- 
tinizing and  carefully  analyzing  arguments  adverse  to  our  own  opinions. 
One  shrinking  from  such  an  ordeal,  lacks  the  capacity  to  understand 
his  own  interest.  Practically  claiming  self-infallibility,  he  closes  every 
avenue  through  which  light  could  reach  his  mind  and  develope  its 
resources.  This  obtuseness  nowise  disparages  those  striving  to  dispel 
the  fallacies  which  obstruct  his  mental  growth,  but  simply  injures  him- 
self by  prolonging  his  intellectual  infancy.  No  intelligent  person  can 
respect  one  so  bigoted  and  narrow-minded :  such  must  necessarily  de- 
plore and  pity  his  ignorance  and  infatuation.  I  once  knew  a  man  who 
denounced  and  repudiated  the  Copernican  System  because  if  our 
o-lobe  revolved,  as  that  claimed,  its  undermost  inhabitants  would  fall 
off.  Had  he  permitted  me  to  explain %  the  law  of  gravitation,  and  the  * 
overwhelming  testimony  furnished  oy  a  lunar  eclipse,  the  truth  would 
have  been  fully  elucidated.  But,  having  assumed  a  gross  fallacy,  lie 
vehemently  rejected  all  arguments  incompatible  therewith.  Did  be 
injure  any  one  save  himself?  Wishing  to  reach  a  given  locality,  but 
being  too  self-wise  to  examine  the  guide-boards  erected  for  the  con- 
venience of  travellers,  I  find  after  performing  a  wearisome  journey,  that 
I  am  as  far  from  that  locality  as  I  was  when  starting.  This  road  will 
not  change  its  position  because  I  would  fain  have  it  appear  that  one  so 
wise  as  myself  cannot  err,  but  I  must  abandon  my  fallacy  and  accept 
inflexible  truth.  The  time  and  strength  expended  in  consequence  of 
rejecting  the  guidance  kindly  proffered  by  those  better  informed  than 
myself,  has  been  squandered.  I  have  merely  punished  myself,  without 
in  any  manner  disparaging  those  who  strove  to  prevent  such  deplorable 
self-stultification. 

One  who  has  not  ascertained  that  he  seriously  retards  his  intellectual 
development  by  listening  to,  and  reading,  the  arguments  of  those 
only  who  concur  in  his  own  views,  has  not  yet  learned  even  the 
primary  lessons  of  wisdom.     It  is  only  by  constant  and  severe  conflict 


[5  ]. 

with  antagonistic  elements,  that  ::.-'.-  mental  resources  can  be  -developed 
and  expanded.  To  question  this  would  be  no  less  absurd  than  would 
be  the  supposition  that  his  muscles  could  be  strengthed,  by  pulling  a 
rope  offering  no  resistance  at  the  other  end.  So  far  from  deprecating 
a  searching  criticism  of  the  arguments  I  may  at  any  time  present,  I 
earnestly  desire  it  as  a  test  of  their  validity,  being  anxious  to  facilitate 
my  progress  in  knowledge  by  abandoning  any  views  I  may  have  formed, 
the  moment  their  fallacy  can  be  clearly  demonstrated.  Thus  only 
can  I  purge  my  mind  of  worthless  and  cumbersome  trash,  making 
room  for  vigorous  and  progressive  ideas.  This  system  has  led  to  the 
repudiation  of  many  opinions  1  had  previously  deemed  sound.  He 
who  indolently  leans  upon  others,  accepting,  untested  by  exhaustive 
individual  analysis,  such  opinions,  on  any  subject  whatever,  as  they 
shall  pronounce  reliable,  will  never  attain  adult  intellectuality,  since 
no  human  faculty  can  be  fully  developed,  otherwise  than  by  constant 
and  active  exercise. 

Readers  recognizing  the  validity  of  the  foregoing  propositions,  will 
estimate  the  opinions  and  arguments  ]  am  about  to  offer,  by  their  in- 
trinsic merits  or  demerits,  rather  than  by  any  conclusions  on  the  same 
topics  they  may  have  previously  formed. 

Among  those  who  inaugurated  the  late  American  Union, the  opinion 
that  slavery  was  abstractly  wrong  was  very  general,  if  not  universal. 
Under  this  conviction,  Washington  and  many  other  Virginians  organ- 
ized a  project  for  its  prosn^tiv.*  extinction  in  that  State.  Fanatics  in 
the  non-slave-holding  States,  deeming  this  undertaking  too  tardy  in  its 
operation,  strove  to  expedite  the  proposed  consummation,  by  demand- 
ing a  modification  of  the  programme.  Indignant  at  such  unsolicited  in- 
terference, the  former  fortunately  abandoned  their  scheme,  permitting 
the  institution  to  proceed,  unmolested,  in  the  development  of  its  mis- 
sion. 

Thus  did  those  professing  intense  sympathy  lor  the  negro,  although 
he  was  ten-fold  more  comfortable  than  the  poor,  struggling  beings  daily, 
thronging  their  path,  entirely  defeat  the  first  effort  towards  his  emanci- 
pation in  the  United  States,  and  materially  contribute  to  the  Subse- 
quent expansion  of  slavery.  Their  gratuitous  meddling  with  the  moral 
duties  of  slave-owners,  so  excited  and  stimulated  the  minds  of  the  latter, 
that  they  were  enabled  to  detect  the  fallacy  of  the  prevalent  sentiment. 
Grasping  a  more  comprehensive  view  of  the  subject,  they  discovered 
that  slavery  was   eminently  ameliorative  of  the  African  race — that  ne- 


[6  ] 

groes  in  a  state  of  bondage  were  vastly  more  respectable,  contented  and 
happy  than  they  were  when  free.     The  mora!  deterioration  of  that  race 
in  the  non-slave-holding  States,  ami  in  St.  Domingo,  consequent  upon 
their  escape  from  the  wholesome  restraint  which  had  previously  kept 
them  in  comparative  civilization,  overwhelmingly  demonstrated  their 
incapacity  for  self-government.     The  deplorable  consequences  of  eman- 
cipation in  the  British   and   French  Colonies,  subsequently  confirmed 
the  conviction  that  enlightened  and  genuine   philanthropy  counselled 
the  perpetuation   of  our  prominent  institution,  under  humane  regula- 
tions, such  as  had  always  been  deemed  obligatory  both  by  law  and  by 
public  opinion,  and  were  clearly  conducive  to  our  self-interest.     A  de- 
cline in  the  aggregate  agricultural  productions  of  a  given  locality,  un- 
less caused  by  emigration,  as  it  was  not  in  the  case  under  considera- 
tion, is  always  indicative  of  the  deterioration  of  either  the  soil  or  the 
morality  of  the  cultivators  thereof.     The  immense  falling-qff  in  the 
productions  of  these  West  India  Islands,  which  followed  emancipation, 
was  not  owing  to  the  former,  and  was  therefore  attributable  to  the  lat- 
ter cause.     This  conclusion  is  rendered  inevitable  by  a  comparison  of 
the  miserable,  lazy,  degraded  and  impudent  beings  now  infesting  those 
Islands,  with  the  industrious,  orderly,  contented  and  happy  slaves  there 
seen  prior  to  the  suicidal  subversion  of  the  unerring  decrees  of  Nature. 
I  learn  from  one  of  our  citizens — a  native  of  one  of  these  Colonies — 
that  a  relative  residing  in  Jamaica,  recently  purchased  for  fifty '-four 
thousand  dollars,  deeming  it  a  rare  bargain,  a   plantation   which,   with 
the  slaves  upon  it,  was  once  worth  a  million  dollars.  •'  Having  employ- 
ed, at  stipulated  wages,  the  requisite  number  of  "  freemen"  to  cultivate 
it,  he  anticipated  a  handsome  interest  upon  the  investment.     Subse- 
quently, however,  the  negroes  demanded  dmihle  the  stipulated  toages. 
Perceiving  that  the  loss  of  the  promised  crop  would  prove  economical 
compared  to  a  compliance  with  their  atrocious  exactions,  he  chose  the 
former.     Having  squandered  no  inconsiderable  sum  in  a  futile  attempt 
to  render  this  estate  remunerative,  he  was  anxious,  but  unable,  to  part 
with  his  imaginary  bargain  at  five'  thousand  dollars  less  than  it  cost  a 
few  months  previous.     Historical  facts  like   these,  are  impregnable. 
The  paltry  calibre  of  sophistry  may  forever  assail  them  with  its  harm- 
less missiles,  but  their  eternal  foundation  cannot  be  shaken.     They  de- 
monstrate, beyond  cavil,  the  tendency  of  the  negro  race  to  relapse  into 
its  natural  barbarism,  when  released  from  salutary  discipline.     Such  an 
overwhelming  practical  refutation  of  the  absurd  and  childish  abolition 
theory  ,rmust  prove  irresistible  to  all  possessing  sufficient  moral  courage 


•     [ 7 1 

to  confront  it  manfully,  and  estimate  the  magnitude  of  its  significance. 
Let  sncfa  avail  themselves  of  all  reliable  sources  of  information,  and 
they  can  reach  but  one  conclusion,  viz:  that  negroes  must  inevitably 
be  either  the  slaves  of  a«  superior  race,  or  the  vassals  of  their  own  de- 
moralizing and  degrading  animal  propensities.  I,  of  course,  admit  that 
there  are  exceptions — we  have  all  seen  many  such  exceptions — but  no 
unprejudiced  person,  being  conversant  with  the  characteristics  cf  that 
yace,  will  pretend  that  this  disability  is  not  manifest  in  the  mass  of 
them.  To  which  of  these  two  kinds  of  servitude  should  they  be  sub- 
jected, by  those  upon  whom  devolves  the  duty  of  protecting  them  and 
promoting  their  welfare?  Conclusive  as  is  the  evidence  already  ex- 
amined, it  is  corroborated  by  other  developments,  superinduced  by  the 
short-sighted  and  pernicious  policy  of  the  British  and  French  Govern- 
ments. Having  extinguished  uotwX'i  slavery  in  their  Colonies,  thus 
paralyzing  their  agricultural  resources,  those  Government*  were  induced 
to  resort  to  a  system  of  artificial  slavery,  vastly  more  objectionable,  in 
the  hope  of  neutralizing  the  egregious,  blunder  they  had  committed  in 
obedience  to  the  senseless  clamor  of  narrow-minded  and  bigoted  ab- 
stractionists. While  spending  millions  in  a  philanthropic  effort  to  sup-, 
press  an  illicit  African  slave  trade,  they  furnished  a  pernicious  example 
to  those  pursuing  thai  traffic,  by  themselves  legalizing  the  cooly  slave 
trade,  attended  with  even  greater  cruelty  to  its  victims  than  was  the 
former.  An  anecdote  1  have  heard  aptly  illustrates  such  amusing  in- 
consistency :  "^stress  O'Xail,"  whispered  the  gentlemanly  and  digni- 
fied Mr.  Murphy,*"  I  shall  prisantly  rail  for  a  glass  of  limonade  ;  and, 
when  me  back  is  turned — unbeknown  to  meself — slip  in  a  gill  of  whis- 
key, if  you  plaise  :  I'm  a  timperaiice  mam."  And  why  did  these  de- 
luded Governments  have  to  call  for  "a  glass  of  limonade,"  forthwith 
turning  their  backs  to  the  bar  {  Simply  because  their  doubly  ruinous 
experiment  had  rendered  the  negro  "freemen*'  in  their  Colonies  wholly 
unreliable  as  tillers  of  the  soil,  and  transformed  them  into  a  disgusting 
gang  of  loafers — a  nuisance  to  the  white  population,  many  of  the  latter 
being  consequently  compelled  to  emigrate.  But  the  Cooly  system  of 
dodging  the  name  of  slavery  while  inaugurating  actual  slavery,  deci- 
dedly more  objectionable  than  the  normal  servile  institution  which  pre- 
ceded it,  proved  successful  only  to  a  limited  extent,  since  it  did  not 
prevent  a  material  decline  in  the  productiveness  of  those  Colonies,  and 
in  the  value  of  real  estate  there.  Thus  will  it.  ever  be  when  man  pre- 
sumptuously essays  to  subvert  the  laws  of  Nature — when  the  finite  un- 
dtrtakes  to  remedy  the  practically  alleged  blunders  of  the  Infinite. 


t  8  ] 

And  shall  we  reject  this  instructive  historical  testimony- 
table  logic  of  facts — because  it  does  not  harmonize  with  the  visionary 
theories  of  self-righteous  and  ignorant  bigots,  whose  contracted  minds 
cannot  grasp  a  comprehensive  view  of  a  subject — men  whose  opinions 
lff~>  are  based  upon  such  unmitigated  lies  as  those  fomenting  and  festering 
on  the  pages  of  "  Uncle  Tom's  Cabin,"  and  kindred  atrocious  libels 
upon  the  people  of  our  Republic  2  One  detailing  his  experience  at  a 
degraded  brothel,  as  illustrative  of  refined  society,  would  not  more 
grossly  and  willfully  pervert  truth,  than  do  such  stratagems  for  picking 
the  pockets  of  the  credulous.  To  permit  such  literary  felons  to  remain 
outside  of  the  penitentiary,  is  to  defraud  justice  of  her  due.  The  time 
will  come  when  such  avaricious  and  unprincipled  beings  as  those  whose 
vocation  it  has  been  to  fill  their  own  pockets  by  pandering  to  the  de- 
praved appetites  of  the  ignorant  and'the  intolerant,  will  be  despised  and 
execrated  by  all  intelligent  and  high-minded  persons. 

The  people  of  the  South  having,  as  here  proved,  ascertained  that  sla- 
very was  the  condition  most  conducive  to  the  welfare  of  the  negro,  per- 
ceived that  duty  prompted  them  to  facilitate  the  extension  of  it — that 
it  would  be  criminal  not  to  counteract  the  designs  of  those  striving  to 
abolish  that  salutary  and  beneficent  institution — as  criminal  as  would 
be  acquiescence  in  a  project  for  the  subversion  of  the  wholesome  influ- 
ence of  parental  discipline.     White  children,  generally,  having  attained 
the  age  of  twelve  and  upward,  are  better  qualified  for  self-control  than 
are  the  mass  of  adult  negroes.     To  those  possessing  individual  know- 
ledge on  the   subject,  this  is  self-evident.     The  fallacies  originally  in- 
A    dulged  by  slave-owners  having,  as  shown,  been  super^ded'  by  broader 
and  more  enlightened  views,  in  consequence  of  the  impudent  interfer- 
ence of  their  fanatical  enemies,  it  is  evident  that  the  latter  have  been 
instrumental  in  augmenting  the  magnitude  of  our  prominent  institution. 
Had  such  busy-bodies  been  content  to  guard  the  integrity  of  their  owji 
.consciences,  instead  of  assuming  a  gratuitous  supervision  over  those  far 
more  developed,  morally,  the  slave  population  would  not  so  soon  have 
attained  the  prodigious  aggregate  of  four  millions,  and  slavery  would, 
ere  this,  have  been  abolished  in  at  least  three  of  the  States  which  still, 
and  doubtless  will  for  centuries,  retain  it.     Thus  has  Providence  ren- 
dered our  malignant  enemies  and  unscrupulous  libelers  subservient  both 
to  our  good  and  to  the  perpetuation  of  an  instrumentality  unsurpassed 
in  its  capacity  to  enhance  the  prosperity  and  the  well  being  of  mankind. 
Those  denouncing  slavery  and  yet  consuming  the  products  of  slave  la- 
bor, are  as  hypocritical  and  knavish  as  I  should  be,  should -I- denounce 


[9  ] 

theft  and  yet  purchase,  because  it.  was  cheap,  an  article  which  I  knew 
had  been  stolen.  They  practically  encourage  slavery  precisely  as  I 
should  thus  practically  encourage  theft.  Nay,  many  of  them  are  far 
more  criminal  than  I  should  be  in  the  supposed  case,  since  theft  is  only 
one  crime,  while  they  denominate  slavery  "  the  sum  of  all  villainy." 
Such  insane  bigots  are  admirably  qualified  to  correct  the  consciences 
of  others !  Would  they  not  better  evince  their  sincerity,  consistencv 
and  integrity  by  removing  the  huge  beam,  before  searching  abroad  for 
a  little  mote?  Can  intelligent  and  high  minded  persons  entertain  anv 
respect  for  such  hypocrites  and  pharisees  \     Impossible  ! 

Any  hypothesis  which  does  not  clearly  explain  the  result  proposed 
to  be  attained,  is  undeserving  serious  notice,  save  for  the  purpose  of 
exposing  its  absurdity.  A  man  asks  -permission  to  demolish  the  edifice 
which  comfortably  shelters  my  family.  On  inquiry,  I  perceive  that  he 
has  devised  no  plan  for  re-construction,  lie  is  capable  of  reducing  to 
a  shapeless  mass  of  ruins  a  structure  combining  many  conveniences,  but 
can  offer  no  suggestion  touching  subsequent  proceedings.  This  is  pre- 
cisely the  position  of  those  who  have  wrought  such  wide-spread  mis- 
chief— a  thousand  fold  greater  mischief  to  themselves  and  their  dupes, 
than  to  us — by  inculcating  their  crude  and  disjointed  theories.  They 
clamor  for  the  abolition  of  slavery,  but  remain  silent  concerning  subse- 
quent arrangements.  Suppose  we  were  idiotic  enough  to  heed  their 
.clamor  and  gratify  their  childish  whims.  What  have  they  to  propose 
relative  to  the  disposal  of  the  adult  children  thus  magically  transformed 
into  nominal  "  freemen"  !  Quixotic  and  shallow  as  are  their  views  on 
the  negro  question,  they  can  hardly  be  such  consummate  fools  as  to 
suppose  that  we  would  permit  our  existence  to  be  rendered  intolerable, 
by  the  presence  of  such  semi-barbarians.  A  policy  so  suicidal  as  that 
would  be  universally  condemned,  and  our  only  alternative  would  be 
-either  the  expulsion  or  the  extermination  of  the  hapless  victims  of 
bogus  "  philanthropy.*'  In  the  language  of  the  first  fratricide — Cain — 
the  poor  outcasts  would  exclaim,  "  behold  thou  hast  driven  me  out  this 
day  from  the  face  of  the  earth,  and  from  thy  face  shall  I  be  hid ;  and  I 
shall  be  a  fugitive  and  a  vagabond  in  the  earth  ;  and  it  shall  come  to 
pass  that  every  one  that  findeth  me  shall  slay  me."  And  would  "phi- 
lanthropic" New  England  open  her  arms  to  receive  these  four  millions 
of  ruined  beings  who,  by  her  despicable  machinations,  had  been  depri- 
ved of  comfortable  homes  ?  Far  from  it.  Those  professing  profound 
sympathy  for  the  slave  have  none  whatever  for  the  free  negro.     The 

2 


[  io] 

•  latter  may  starve  in  their  midst  for  aught  they  care.  But  the  disas- 
trous consequences  of  such  prodigious  folly — such  wild  infatuation, 
would  not  stop  here,  as  I  shall  proceed  to  demonstrate.  No  well  in- 
formed person  will  assume  that  white  laborers,  could  an  adequate  num- 
ber be  procured,  and  at  wages  low  enough  to  render  the  cultivation  of 
cotton  remunerative,  could  endure  the  intense  heat  of  our  climate,  in 
the  field.  Hence  it  follows  that  this  staple  must  be  raised  by  negroc ;, 
or  not  at  all.  Experience  having  demonstrated  the  unreliability  of  the 
latter  when  free,  an  adequate  supply  of  cotton  depends  upon  the  per- 
petuation of  slavery.  Emancipate  the  negroes,  and,  even  should  they 
be  permitted  to  remain  among  us,  our  annual  crop  of  more  than  four 
million  bales  would  speedily  dwindle  to  less  than  half  a  million — per- 
haps to  a  half  or  even  a  quarter  of  the  latter.  What  would  follow  I 
Ten  millions  of  white  people  now  depending  entirely  upon  that  staple 
for  the  means  of  support,  would  be  reduced  to  starvation,  while  hun- 
dreds of  millions  would  be  rendered  destitute  of  the  fabrics  required  to 
clothe  them  :  blood-shed  and  revolution  would  devastate  Great  Britain,, 
and  probably  France  and  New  England.  Thus  would  culminate  the 
most  atrocious  and  infamous  crusade  ever  planned  by  men  or  demons, 
did  not  the  South  confront  and  drive  back  to  their  foul  dens  the  van- 
dalic  legions  that  audaciously  presume  to  profane  her  sacred  soil  by 
their  polluting  tread.  Such  would  be  the  consequences  were  finite  ani- 
mosity and  fiendish  malice  capable  of  defeating  a  stupendous  design  of 
the  Almighty. 

"  Tis  well  the  sun  is  placed  bo  high  : 
Else  some  reforming  ass 
Would  rudely  snatch  it  from  the  sky, 
And  light  the  world  with  gas." 

Since  the  emancipation  of  our  slaves  would,  by  exhausting  the  sup- 
ply of  cotton,  subvert  the  British  Government,  it  would,  were  such  a 
calamity  imminent,  be  compelled  to  take  the  steps  requisite  to  avert  it. 
True,  the  inconsistency  of  theoretically  condemning  slavery  while 
practically  interposing  obstacles  to  its  overthrow,  might  be  somewhat 
embarrassing  to  those  upon  whom  devolved  that  duty  :  true,  the  act 
would  serve  to  throw  wide-open  the  sluices  of  criticism,  and  to  elicit 
a  deafening  howl  from  the  abolition  kennel;  but  the  existence  of  their 
cherished  political  fabric  being  at  stake,  British  statesmen  would  suc- 
cumb to  the  inexorable  demands  of  necessity.  This  view  of  a  subject, 
the  magnitude  of  which  has  been  appreciated  by  few  persons  outside  of 
our  Confederacy,  may  seem  startling  to  those  who  have  long  been 
deluded  by  some  of  the   most  stupendous  fallacies  ever  concocted   by 


[  11  ] 

human  ingenuity — who  have  permitted  sophistries  floating  upon  the 
surface,  to  assume  exiomatic  characteristics,  simply  because,  until  re- 
cently, no  great  political  tornado  has  agitated  the  elements  of  public 
opinion,  bringing  to  view  profound  truths  slumbering  in  its  unexplored 
depths.  But  since  these  momentous  truths  have  at  length  become  visi- 
ble, no  intelligent  reader  will  struggle  to  sustain  cherished  prejudices, 
the  deformity  of  which  has  been  thus  rendered  conspicuous.  Men  of 
ample  mental  resources  will  accept  inflexible  facts  as  they  are,  rather 
than  vainly  strive  to  bend  them  into  harmony  with  preconceived  opinions, 
based  upon  an  inadequate  conception  of  the  great  principles  upon 
which  they  rest. 

My  solution  of  the  great  problem  which  now  presents  itself  and  de- 
mands investigation,  is  this  :  I  premise  that  the  slaves  of  America  are 
a  hundred-fold  more  comfortable,  contented  and  happy,  than  they 
would  have  been  had  they  been  born  and  remained  in  Africa  ;  fifty -fold 
more  so  than  the  free  negroes  in  the  North  and  the  "West  India  Islands ; 
twenty-fold  more  so  than  the  indigent  laboring  class  in  Great  Britain, 
and  ten-fold  more  so  than  that  class  in  the  Northern  States.  The  sub- 
joined selection  from  the  columns  of  the  Bee,  is  strikingly  corroborative 

of  this  opinion  : 

WHITE  SLAVES. 
Editors  of  the  Bee : 

More  despicable  hypocrites  than  the  professed  "  philanthropists1'  at 
the  North,  who  pretend  to  sympathize  so  sincerely  with  our  negro 
slaves,*  never  existed.  The  admonition  to  cast  out  the  beam  from  one's 
own  eye,  before  searching  for  a  mote  in  a  brother's  eye,  is  eminently 
.applicable  to  these  self-righteous  fanatics.  If  they  were  genuine  phil- 
anthropists, they  would  strive  to  abolish  slavery  in  their  own  locality. 
All  the  negro  slaves  in  the  fifteen  slaveholding  States  suffer  less  priva- 
tion and  hardship  than  do  the  slaves  to  destitution  in  the  single  State  of 
Massachusetts. 

The  Boston  Banner  of  Light  reports  the  remarks  at  a  Conference 
held  there  30th  of  April  last,  the  subject  being  "  Woman's  Sphere." 

Dr.  Gardner  said  :  I  lately  met  the  case  of  a  poor  woman,  sixty 
years  of  age,  and  who  was  in  great  want.  I  asked  her  why  she  didn't 
get  sewing  to  do,  for  such  labor  was  much  in  demand,  now.  while  the 
soldiers  are  being  fitted  out  for  the  South.  She  said  all  the  shops  paid 
was  six  cents^  for  making  a  pair  of  drawers,  or  a  shirt,  and  out  of  that 
she  must  find  her  own  needles  and  thread  !  Christianity  should  blush 
at  such  things,  even  if  it  does  not.  Women  must  be  drawn  into  legis- 
lation. If  the  laws  of  the  nation  become  what  they  should  be,  wo- 
man's voice  must  be  heard  in  the  Capitol,  and  her  judgment  should 
be  blended  with  her  brothers,  everywhere.'1 


[  12  ] 

"Mrs.  Cooley  said  :  It  is  a  burning  shame  that  woman  should  be 
imposed  upon  by  employers  as  she  is.  During  the  present  revival  of 
the  needlewoman's  trade,  military  caps  are  made  at  twelve  cents  apiece  + 
and  if  the  girl  works  as  fast  as  she  can,  night  and  day,  she  can  just 
about  pay  her  board  at  this  rate.  I  have  lived  in  many  spheres,  andj 
feel  I  am  now  contented  with  what  I  have  to  do.  As  Dr.  Gardner  has 
said,  the  advantage  taken  of  weak  woman  by  the  stronger  sex,  is  a 
thin^  Christianity  should  blush  for ;  but,  after  all,  it  is  not  Christianity's 
fault." 

The  Picayune  of  the  7th  instant  published  the  following : 

"  Starvation  Prices. — A  wealthy  manufacturer  at  Newark,  N.  J.^ 
has  been  grinding  the  face  of  the  poor  most  cruelly.  He  recently 
compelled  a  poor  woman  with  a  family  of  eight  children,  to  make 
heavy  military  pants  by  hand,  for  twenty  cents  a  pair.  The  womas 
succeeded  in  making  four  pairs  in  a  week,  and  received  therefor  eighty 
cents !  Other  cases  of  a  similar  character  have  occurred,  in  which 
advantage  has  been  taken  of  the  necessities  of  poor  working  men  and 
women." 

Will  any  one  pretend  that  the  hapless  victims  of  such  oppression 
and  robbery  are  not  literally  "slaves  for  life?"  Is  it  possible  for  them, 
ever  to  better  their  situation,  while  held  in  the  grasp  of  such  avaricious 
miscreants  ? 

If  a  Southern  slave  owner  should  compel  his  servant  to  work  "  as 
hard  as  she  can,  day  and  night,"  his  brutality  would  meet  the  reproba- 
tion of  the  entire  community ;  and  any  person  who  should  offer  white 
women  such  inadequate  compensation  for  their  services  as  the  knaves 
above  named  do,  would  be  indignantly  expelled  from  our  midst. 

These  abject  slaves  to  penury  are  not  permitted  to  name  the  rate  of 
remuneration  they  shall  receive,  their  remorseless  task  master  prescribing 
the  pittance  for  which  they  shall  toil  incessantly  to  swell  his  ample 
accumulations.  Yet  the  States  in  which  such  cruel  bondage  is  tolerated 
are  absurdly  denominated  "  free." 

Thank  God  we  are  at  length  relieved  from  the  degradation  of  an 
alliance  with  people  so  destitute  of  the  common  instincts  of  humanity  I 
If  negro  slaves  here  were  subjected  to  a  tithe  of  the  hardships  that  are 
endured  by  the  white  slaves  at  the  North,  we  should  deserve  the  oppro- 
brium that  is  heaped  upon  us  by  the  miscreants  who  themselves  practice 
the  heartlessness  of  wdiich  they  falsely  accuse  us. 

But  swift  retribution  awaits  those  who  have  long  been  amassing 
wealth  by  starving  their  servants.  Having  cut  off  their  source  of  pros- 
perity by  compelling  the  South  to  withdraw  from  their  embrace,  these 
rapacious  wretches  will  themselves  be  reduced  to  penury,  becoming  the 
fellow  slaves  of  those  upon  the  rights  of  whom  they  have  audaciously 
trampled.  Their  professed  reverence  for  the  "stars  and  stripes"  is  all 
gammon  ;  every  discerning  person  knows  that  it  is  reverence  for  their 
dollars  that  prompts  them  to  participate  in  the  outcry  against  the  South. 
They  well  know  that  without  the  South  every  thing  they  own  will 
steadily  sink  in  value,  reducing  them  to  hopeless  bankruptcy;  hence 
their  absurd  effort  to  bring  back  by  force  their  chief  customer.  This 
experiment  will    end  in    disgraceful  and  humiliating  defeat,  fearfully 


[  13  j 

augmenting,  by  the  crushing  expenses  of  war,  the  impoverishment 
that  would  otherwise  have  been  inevitable.  They  and  their  successors 
will  continue  to  groan  under  this  self-inflicted  burden  more  than  a  half 
century,  the  Confederate  States  in  the  meantime  marching  onward  in 
a  career  of  prosperity  unequaled  in  the  history  of  mankind.  The  lat- 
ter is,  and  will  continue  to  be  a  strictly  Constitutional  Republic.  The 
fag-end  of  the  late  United  States  has  become  a  military  despotism, 
recognizing  no  constitutional  obligations  whatever.  The  Empire  of 
Austria  and  the  Empire  of  "  the  United  States"  now  stand,  practically, 
on  the  same  level.  I  am  impatient  to  read  the  comments  of  the  pro- 
minent foreign  journals  upon  the  high-handed  usurpations  practiced 
by  the  caricature  of  humanity — the  despicable  tool  of  Greeley,  Webb, 
and  other  knaves,  who  is  desecrating  an  office,  once  the  most  elevated 
known  among  mankind.  Some  three  .months  since,  Lincoln  swore  to 
obey  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States;  but  already  has  he  pros- 
trated its  barriers  and  usurped  powers  unsurpassed  by  those  of  the 
most  absolute  monarch  in  Christendom.  Such  atrocious  perjury  will 
meet  the  unqualified  reprobation  of  foreign  statesmen  and  editors, 
eliciting  rebukes  which  will  attach  to  his  name  a  depth  of  infamy  suf- 
ficient to  excite  the  jealousy  ot  his  brother  despot  of  Dahomey. 

It  is  not  improbable  that  ere  long  foreign  Governments  will  with- 
draw their  representatives  from  Washington,  deeming  it  disreputable 
to  recognize  the  existence  of  an  alleged  nation,  so  self-degraded  and 
infamous. 

From  the  premises  already  given,  T  reach  the  following  conclusion, 
viz :  That  the  Creator  designed  the  institution  of  slavery,  as  the  means 
of  accomplishing  four  momentous  results: 

Fjrst,  the  partial  civilization   of  a  race  that  in  its  native  country  has, 

through   successive   centuries,   remaiued   in   utter   and    stationary 

barbarism,  and    would   there  have  forever   resisted  all   efforts  to 

ameliorate  its  deplorable  condition  : 

Second,  the  instrumentality  for  affording  employment  and  support  to 

many  millions  of  white  people  : 
Third,  the   only  source   whence  a  large  majority  of  the   human  family 

could  procure  the  fabrics  needed  to  clothe  them  : 
Fourth,    an    irresistible    weapon — more   potent   than    armies,    navies, 
and  treasures  combined — wherewith   the  Confederate   States  are 
destined  to  sustain  the  independence  they  have  achieved,  thus  per- 
petuating the  glorious  institutions  founded  by  Washington  and  his 
compatriots,  and  which,  in  the  fag-end  of  the   late  United  States, 
have  already  been   superseded  by   a  Military  Despotism. 
Slavery  has  already  accomplished,   though  to  a  very  limited  extent 
compared  to  its  future  availability,  three  branches  of  its  comprehensive 
mission,  and  those  exercising  a  little  patience  will  witness  its  triumphant 
consummation  of  tl'.e  fourth.     Our  land  forces  are  adequate  to  the  de- 


L  14  J 

fense  of  our  soil :  the  evidence  thereof  already  exhibited,  is  prophetic 
of  that  yet  to  be  furnished.     We  neither  solicit,  nor  would  we  accept, 
if  proffered,  aid  from  external   sources  in  the  task  of  expelling  our 
mercenary  invaders  :  but,  as  our  enemies  retain  possession  of  our  share 
of  the  vessels  constituting  the  navy  of  the  late  Union — which,  however, 
they  will  have  to  surrender,  ere  we  shall   permit  them  to   escape  from 
the  awkward  predicament  into  which  they  have   stupidly  plunged — 
we  are  at  present  unprepared  to  purge  our  waters  of  the  interloping 
craft  that  now  infest  them.     Being  thus  situated,  we  need,  tempora- 
rily, the  co-operation  of  nations  possessing  ample  naval  resources :  not 
so. much,  however,  as  such  nations  need   our  great  staple,  and   we   are 
therefore  under  no  necessity  of  craving  their   aid.     The  precautionary 
measures  we  have  adopted,  preclude   the   exportation  of  any  cotton  so 
long  as  obstructions  to  unrestricted  commerce  shall  continue  to  annoy 
any  portion  of  our  coast,  situated  either  on  the  Atlantic   or   the   Gulf. 
Should  those  desiring  our  great  staple — the  atmosphere  without  which 
their  political  existence  cannot  be  prolonged — deem  it  expedient — not 
by  any  means  -as  a  favor  to  us,  but  in  obedience  to  the  promptings  of 
self-interest — to  expel  from  our  waters   all  interlopers  now  prowling 
therein,  we  shall,  of  course,  acquiesce  in  the  proceeding  and  facilitate 
the  attainment  of  the  result  they  seek.     We  shall  be  glad  to  furnish 
all  the  cotton  they  need,  to  purchase  their  fabrics  and  give  employment 
to  their  shipping,  to  the  exclusion  of  that  owned  by  our  enemies,  and 
their  most  formidable  rival. 

Pursuant  to  an  agreement  among  our  Planters,  Factors  and  Insurance 
Companies,  the  entire  crop  is  to  remain  on  the  plantations  until  all 
our  ports  shall  have  been  entirely  and  permanently  relieved  •from  exist- 
ing encumbrance.  The  cotton  being  thus  scattered,  the  Lincoln  con- 
spirators would  encounter  perplexing  obstacles  to  the  consummation  of 
their  brilliant  project — brilliant,  like  all  their  other  ingenius  devices — 
on  paper,  viz:  that  of  seizing  it,  should  we  permit  them  to  invade  our 
principal  commercial  marts  in  sufficient  force  to  do  so,  and  were  it  sent 
to  market  as  heretofore.  Any  attempt,  however,  to  practically  illustrate 
this  admirable  programme  of  theirs,  would  provoke  a  finale,  eclipsing 
that  which  has  immortalized  the  achievements  of  the  late  "  Grand 
Army."  But  admitting,  notwithstanding  its  absurdity,  for  the  sake  of 
illustration,  that  there  could  be  precipitated  upon  us  hordes  of  Philis- 
tines numerous  enough  to  overrun  our  territory — would  our  enemies 
thus  possess  themselves  of  the  coveted  staple  ?  Not  a  bale  of  it,  for 
our  planters  are  unanimously  pledged  to  burn  any  cotton,  anywhere, 


r  15  j 

the  seizure  of  which  shall  be  seriously 'menaced.  The  expediency  of 
this  step  is  obvious,  since  they  would  not  only  "  gire  aid  and  comfort 
to  the  enemy"  by  permitting  him  to  steal  their  cotton,  but  would  also 
lose  its  entire  value  themselves;  while  by  destroying  it  they  would 
enhance  the  value  of  that  remaining  for  sale,  thus  throwing  the  loss 
upon  their  customers.  Did  not  humane,  considerations — the  consequent 
distress  among  the  laboring  classes — forbid  such  a  stratagem,  our  plan- 
ters could  largely  advance  their  pecuniary  interest  by  each  committing 
to  the  flames  half  of  his  crop.  How  ?  Assuming  the  aggregate  of 
the  maturing  crop  to  be  four  million  bales,  all  of  which  is  needed, 
the  destruction  of  two  million  bales  would  produce  such  a  vacuum  in 
the  supply,  as  compared  to  the  demand,  that  the  remaining  two  mil- 
lions would  attain  a  value,  nearly  or  quite  equal  to  that  which  the  four 
millions  would  have  represented  had  nothing  happened  to  interrupt 
the  equilibrium  between  supply  and  demand.  And  as  this  equilibrium 
could  not  be  subsequently  restored  for  years,  if  ever,  several  successive 
crops  would  command  prices  materially  higher  than  they  would  have 
attained  had  it  remained  undisturbed.  Thus  would  these  planters  be 
over  and  over  again  remunerated  for  their  nominal  sacrifice,  and  thus 
would  the  cost  of  conducting  the  war  illegally  and  atrociously  precipi- 
tated upon  us  03-  the  miscreants  now  infesting  Washington,  be  twice  or 
thrice  refunded  bv  our  customers.  Those  familiar  with  the  laws  of 
trade  may  perhaps  question  the  entire  accuracy  of  this  estimate,  but 
they  cannot  dispute  its  approximate  reliability. 

There  is  but  one  opinion  among  our  people  concerning  the  expedi- 
ency of  withholding  our  cotton  from  Yankeedom  during  the  existing 
war,  be  it  long  or  short.  None  of  Abraham's  subjects  will  be  permitted 
to  procure  a  bale  of  it  which  has  not  been  previously  lauded  in  some 
foreign  port,  and  is  therefore  burdened  with  extra  freight,  insurance 
and  other  onerous  expenses,  so  augmenting  its  cost  as  to  render  the 
manufacture  of  it  unremunerative.  "But,"  says  one  of  those  prostitute 
sheets  that  have  won  such  celebrity  by  promulgating  pompous  and  bar- 
barous, but  ridiculous  and  abortive  projects  for  our  speedy  annihilation, 
u  we  can  evade  your  vigilance  by  stratagem  :  vessels  can  clear  for  one 
of  the  British  Provinces,  and  steer  for  one  of  our  ports:"  No  they 
cannot,  for  we  shall  exact  security  from  every  craft  suspected  of  such  a 
design,  obligating  her  to  land  her  entire  cargo  at  the  alleged  port  of 
destination.  The  "starving  out"  experiment  of  the  mock-government 
has  disgracefully  failed,  inflicting  upon  its  own  people  ten  fold  the 
damage  it  did  upon  ours,  and  in  many  ways  contributing  to  the  devel- 


[  16  ] 

oprnent  of  our  own  resources.  A  proposition  to  ruin  us  by  bailing  out 
the  Mississippi,  would  not  have  been  more  absurd  and  impracticable 
than  that.  But  our  plan  for  starving  them  out,  by  either  paralyzing 
their  factories,  or  precluding  their  remunerative  operation,  will  vindi- 
cate its  feasibility.  They  will  not,  of  course,  pretend  that  we  are  not 
if*  fully  justifiable  in  following  theife  own  example. 

Although  our  Republic  is  a  mere  infant — counting  its  existence  not 
by  centuries  or  years,  but  by  weeks — it  is  in  truth  the  most  potent 
Government  in  Christendom ;  being,  unlike  any  other  nation,  capable 
of  subverting  the  gigantic  political  fabric  of  Great  Britain,  and  proba- 
bly that  of  France  also,  by  denying  them  the  sole  means  of  averting 
starvation,  and  consequent  revolution.  The  late  Republic  of  the  Uni- 
ted States  has  already  been  subverted  ;  but  we  can  likewise  subvert  the 
Military  Despotism  now  existiug  there,  by  silencing  its  cotton  mills. 
And  this  is  the  concern  that  has  essa}7ed  to  subjugate  the  people  of  the 
Confederate  States,  promising  also  to  punish  and  humble  the  two  chief 
maritime  nations  of  Europe,  should  they  presume  to  countenance  the 
existing  "  rebellion."  What  ridiculous  and  disgusting  bombast !  It 
has,  as  a  Canadian  Journal  recently  remarked,  "  made  the  United 
States  the  laughing-stock  of  all  Europe."  While  sinking  that  sham 
government,  it  has  correspondingly,  by  contrast,  elevated  our  genuine 
Government,  in  the  estimation  of  all  worthy  and  intelligent  men. 

I  contend  that  the  political  tornado  in  America,  which  is  now  con- 
vulsing a  large  part  of  Christendom,  is  destined  to  achieve  for  us,  if 
seconded  by  our  own  energetic  co-operation,  salutary  results  defying 
finite  computation,  by  producing  a  revolution  in  the  popular  sentiment 
abroad,  which  could  not  have  been  wrought  by  instrumentalities  less 
stupendous  and  overwhelming.  The  mass  of  Europeans  are  profoundly 
ignorant  of  the  magnitude  of  our  natural  resources  and  the  character 
of  our  people,  as  well  as  of  the  practical  operation  and  the  comprehen- 
sive mission  of  our  prominent  institution,  because  {heir  views  on  these 
subjects  are  based,  almost  exclusively,  upon  the  infamous  libels  which 
have  for  more  than  a  quarter  of  a  century  been  assiduously  thrust  upon 
them  by  our  unprincipled  and  malignant  enemies.  Had  affairs  on  this 
side  of  the  Atlantic  remained  quiescent,  the  vile  sophisms  of  these 
calumniators  would  not  have  been  detected  and  rebuked  by  those  they 
had  deluded  as  they  are  now  certain  to  be,  because  the  existing  excite- 
ment will  prompt  all  intelligent  minds  to  seek  a  philosophical  solution 
of  experience  so  astounding.     Providence  having,  by  the  wholesome 


L  17  ] 

instrumentalities  of  frost,  snow,  rain,  sun-shine,  <fcc,  rendered  the  soi' 
receptive,  leaves  to  the  husbandman  the  sequel.  The  latter  must  do 
the  ploughing,  planting,  &c,  or  the  preliminary  preparations  of  the 
former  will  be  rendered  nugatory — There  will  be  no  crop.  The  sensi- 
tive condition  of  the  public  mind  in  England,  superinduced  by  the 
anxiety  concerning  the  cotton-supply,  which  had  for  years  been  manifest, 
had  adapted  it  to  the  plough :  then  it  was  rendered  receptive  by  the 
ample  furrows  cut  by  our  revolutionary  plough :  then  came  seed-time — the 
propitious  moment  for  sowing  truth  in  the  soil  which  had  long  been 
overgrown  by  the  rank  weeds  of  fanatical  sophistry.  We  are  the  hus- 
bandmen whose  imperative  duty  it  is  to  scatter  broadcast  such  seeds. 
If  we  are  capable  of  appreciating  the  obligation  devolving  upon  us, 
we  shall  not  permit  to  pass  unimproved  this  first  opportunity  we  have 
had  to  apply  a  thorough  and  permanent  corrective  to  public  opinion 
abroad.  No  individual  yearniDg  for  the  steady  march  of  our  Republic 
towards  its  brilliant  destiny,  will  evade  this  solemn  duty.  Every  one 
having  correspondents  in  Europe,  should  send  them  in  profusion  slips 
from  the  newspapers,  and  all  kinds  of  publications  calculated  to  eradi- 
cate the  prevalent  errors,  and  to  impart  a  conception  of  the  prodigious 
resources  of  our  country,  requesting  them  to  press  them  upon  the  con- 
sideration of  their  prominent  men,  especially  their  statesmen  and  jour- 
nalists. Had  this  system  been  vigorously  pursued,  the  British  and 
French  Governments,  seeing  that  we  possessed,  in  almost  infinite  pro- 
fusion, all  the  elements  of  permanent  nationality,  would,  ere  this,  have 
recognized  our  independence. 

When  the  leading  minds  in  Europe  come  to  realize  the  astound- 
ing fact  that  slavery  and  the  mighty  political  institutions  of  Great 
Britain  must  either  stand  or  fall  together,  they  will  be  no  longer 
content  to  accept  the  narrow  and  bigoted  Exeter-Hall  definition  of  the 
former,  but  will  consult  historical  and  statistical  evidence  on  the  sub- 
ject. Thus  ascertaining  that  the  West  India  Colonies  have  been  im- 
poverished and  ruined,  and  the  negro  population  thereof  greatly  demo- 
ralized, by  the  blasting  experiment  of  emancipation,  our  States  having 
in  the  meantime  prodigiously  advanced  in  population  and  in  all  the 
elements  of  wealth,  power  and  refinement,  they  will  realize  that  the 
institution  of  slavery  was  designed  to  vindicate  the  wTisdom  and  benefi- 
cence of  the  Creator,  and  consequently  that  finite  attempts  to  arrest 
its  resistless  career  must  prove  as  futile  as  would   an   effort   to  quench 

3 


[  18  ] 

our  solar  luminary.  Being*  thus  enlightened  concerning  an  organization 
which,  perhaps,  more  than  any  other,  in  a  merely  sublunary  sense, 
affects  the  well-being  of  mankind,  everywhere,  these  men  will  under- 
stand that  duty  prompts  them  to  applaud  rather  than  condemn  those 
striving  to  defeat  the  designs  of  the  short-sighted  beings  who  would  fain 
check  its  giant  strides  towards  the  consummation  of  its  sublime  mis- 
sion. This  mental  revolution  in  Europe  will  gradually  extend  its  influ- 
ence elsewhere,  until  all  enlightened  minds  will  recognize  its  paramount 
claims,  and  the  abolition  faction  will  contract  to  the  narrow  dimensions 
which  it  occupied  before  its  mischievous  capacity  was  augmented  by 
artificial  appliances.  That  such  a  result  will  materially  advance  our 
interest,  facilitating  our  capacity  to  render  slavery  subservient  to  the 
well-being  of  our  race,  none  will  dispute,  save  those  too  bigoted  to  merit 
serious  notice.  Besides,  the  satisfaction  of  seeing  our  enemies  humbled 
and  rendered  harmless,  will  largely  compensate  us  for  all  our  efforts. 

Emancipation  in  the  West  India  Colonies  was  evidently  designed 
both  as  a  lesson  to  us,  and  as  the  means  for  correcting  public  opinion 
abroad,  to  be  seized  at  this  propitious  epoch.  This  instructive  lesson 
has  served  to  admonish  us  of  the  momentous  responsibility  resting  upon 
us  as  the  custodians  of  an  institution,  upon  the  preservation  and  per- 
petuation of  which  hangs  the  welfare,  nay,  the  very  existence  of  count- 
less millions  of  human  beings.  Should  we  for  a  moment  hesitate  to 
peril  our  lives  and  all  we  possess -in  defense  of  the  sacred  trust  commit- 
ted to  our  keeping,  we  should  be  recreant  to  the  dictates  of  conscience — 
traitors  to  the  Glorious  Being  who  delegated  to  us  so  sublime  a  mis- 
sion— infidels  deserving  the  execration  of  God  and  man.  We  shall  not 
falter.  Confident  of  receiving  from  Him  who  has  imparted  a  clear  con- 
ception of  the  duties  enjoined  upon  us,  all  the  aid  we  need,  we  shall 
continue  to  hurl  defiance  at  our  infuriate  foes,  meeting  with  scorn  and 
derision  their  harmless  menaces — harmless  to  us,  but  not  to  themselves. 
When,  prompted  by  more  than  Sepoy  ferocity,  they  propose  to  "  drown 
out"  our  whole  population — men,  women,  children  and  servants — by 
"  cutting  our  levees ;"  to  "  excite  servile  insurrections"  and  perpetrate 
kindred  atrocities,we  shall,  as  heretofore,  calmly  respond :  "  do  so  if  you 
can  ;  we  are  perfectly  familiar  with  our  own  resources,  and  fully  quali- 
fied to  use  them  as  occasion  may  suggest :  you  have  stupidly  betrayed 
your  dread  of  our  strength  and  your  own  weakness :  those  conscious  of 
being  a  match  for  their  adversaries  always  maintain  aceol  and  dignified 


[  19  ] 

<leportinent :  confidence  and  desperation  are  as  antagonistic  as  are  fire 
and  water." 

This  crisis  will  achieve  another  reform  that  will  prodigiously  accelerate 
our  progress  in  prosperity  and  national  development,  viz :  our  release  from 
that  literary,  financial  and  commercial  vassalage  which  has  hitherto  kept 
us  tributary  to  our  enemies,  and  emboldened  them  to  imagine  that,  as  com- 
pared to  themselves,  we  were  an  inferior  race.  This  opinion  is  forcibly 
corroborated  by  the  following  literary  gem,  copied  from  the  New 
Orleans  Mirror : 

SOUTHERN  EDUCATION  AND  TALENT. 


The  following  address  by  President  Win.  H.  Peck,  delivered  at  the 
Semi-annual  Exhibition  of  the  Greenville  Masonic  Female  College, 
Greenville,  Ga.,  July  3d,  should  be  universally  read.  It  is  replete  with 
truisms,  and  we  heartily  commend  it  to  our  readers.  President  Peck 
is  the  son  of  our  esteemed  friend  and  fellow-citizen,  Col.  S.  H.  Peck, 
whose  early  devotion  to  the  Southern  Confederacy  has  been  abundantly 
proved  by  his  liberal  gratuities  ot  money,  <fcc,  to  volunteer  companies 
as  well  as  by  the  fact  that  several  of  his  sons  are  now  fighting  our  bat- 
tles in  Virginia : 

The  age  of  man  should  not  be  measured  by  the  dripping  of  years 
through  sands  of  time's  hourglass,  nor  reckoned  by  the  revolutions 
of  planets  amid  the  boundless  realms  of  space — for  his  locks  are  sil- 
vered by  the  electric  touches  of  Event.  History  should  no  longer 
number  her  pages  by  years,  cycles  or  centuries,  for  Time  chronicles 
its  potent  and  enduring  achievements  upon  the  portals  of  Eternity, 
beneath  these  four  mottoes  of  man's  progress:  Action,  Invention, 
Revolution  and  Education.  It  is  to  the  value  of  the  last  that  I  beg 
your  attention. 

The  mind  of  mankind  grows  old  and  gray,  not  with  years,  but 
with  ever  accumulating  masses  of  important  facts — each  fact  of  more 
real  value  to  modern  man  and  his  unborn  posterity,  than  would  be 
an  age  plucked  from  the  mental  slough  of  antediluvian  life.  He  who 
lives  fifty  years  of  this,  the  19th  century,  will  live  more  in  events 
and  die  older  in  mental  existence  than  did  the  biblical  and  century- 
clad  Mathuselah. 

The  savage  of  the  pathless  wilds  knowing  nothing,  save  from  the 
fallacious  teaching  of  erring  Tradition,  learning  of  earth's  mighty 
mysteries  only  from  a  life-long  experience ;  thinking,  believing  and 
erring  as  his  red  and  rude  forefathers  thought,  believed  and  erred  ; 
with  a  past  ceasing  with  yesterday,  a  present  ending  with  to-day, 
and  a  future  bounded  by  io-morrow,  may  drag  through  his  barbarian 
breathing  time  until  the  winds  of  a  hundred  winters  shall  have  with- 
ered the  branches  of  the  oak  that   was  an   acorn   when  he  was   an 


t  20  ] 

infant,  and  yet  be  young  in  life  measured  by  event  and  utility.  On 
the  other  hand  a  youth  of  an  enlightened  and  rapidly  progressing 
people,  though  the  suns  of  twenty-summers  shall  not  have  embrown- 
ed his  cheek,  or  darkened  upon  his  chin  the  tokens  of  manhood, 
may  be  older  than  this  white-haired  savage,  whose  gaze  has  rested 
upon  a  thousand  moons.  The  latter  lives  as  his  ancestors  lived  ; 
sees,  thinks  and  reasons  in  the  thread-like  path  his  ancestors  used, 
and  is  a  being  of  which  History  can  write  but  one  record:  He  was 
born,  he  lived,  he  propagated,  he  died,  he  rots! — flesh  decayed,  gone 
forever — a  mere  atom  of  the  ineffable  infinitesimals  of  God's  illimita- 
ble Creation! 

But  what  ages  of  event  are  crowded  into  the  shorter  life  of  the 
civilized  and  educated  youth !  Behold  him  surrounded  by  the  num- 
berless and  ever  increasing  discoveries  land  improvements  in  Art, 
Science  and  Literature  !  Standing  awe  struck  before  the  subtle 
majesty  of  enslaved  steam,  that  giant  motor,  as  it  sways  to  and  fro 
with  leviathan  strength  the  ponderous  bulk  of  mighty  and  complica- 
ted machinery ;  or  gazing  in  wonder  upon  the  earth  and  seeing  its 
clayey  bosom  with  its  muscles  of  rock  and  flint,  bound  and  hamper- 
ed with  belts  and  bars  of  adamant,  over  which  rush  with  more  than 
race-horse  speed,  richly  laden  caravans  of  intelligent  thousands,  and 
priceless  magazines  of  commercial  and  agricultural  wealth,  or  ga- 
zing proudly  upward  upon  those  tiny  threads  of  metal  with  which 
Man,  the  Magician,  enslaves  the  leaping  liquid  flames  of  "  Heaven's, 
red  artillery,"  forcing  the  forked  lightning  to  do  him  menial  service 
as  his  telegraphic  messenger;  or  viewing  the  one  invincible  oce8n 
shorn  of  its  briny  terrors  and  tamely  upholding  floating  palaces, 
magnificent  arks  of  strength,  ironbo welled  ships,  which  play  upon 
the  foam  of  Neptune's  rage  as  scatheless  as  the  swift-winged  alba- 
tross !  With  all  these  trophies  of  Man's  progress  about,  above  and 
beneath  him,  and  having  free  access  to  the  vast  store-house  of  his- 
tory, art,  science  and  literature,  grand  granaries  of  the  mind,  heaped 
from  base  to  dome  with  the  time-defying  acquisitions  of  the  learned 
and  inspired  of  ancient  and  modern  men,  this  fortunate  heir  of  human 
life  lives  more  in  a  day,  than  did  the  patriarch  in  a  year  of  that 
long  existence  which  he  divided  into  centuries  ! 

Yet,  to  appreciate  and  use  these  inestimable  advantages  aright  he 
needs  a  key,  a  talisman  more  potent  than  the  open  sesame  of  the 
Arab  fable,  and  that  talisman,  which  once  won,  can  never  be  lost,  is 
Education!  Education!  the  true  philosopher's  stone,  calcined  amid 
the  busy  furnaces  of  the  human  brain,  and  whose  possession  trans- 
mutes all  that  surrounds  it,  every  atom  of  the  animal,  vegetable  and 
mineral  kingdom  into  mental  gold,  the  diamond  polished  gold  of  the 
godlike  brain  ;  gold  that  is  to  be  further  polished  and  refined  beyond 
the  stream  of  death  which  separates  life  from  eternity.  For  know- 
ledge, be  it  of  good  or  evil,  is  as  immortal  as  the  Creator;  so  de- 
clared by  his  immutable  decree,  or  only  to  be  destroyed  by  the  will 
of  the  omnipotent  deity  who  gives  it. 

He  that  hath   education   is   rich,  though  beggarly  rags  cling  like 


\ 


[21  ] 

vermin  to  his  Lazarus-like  form,  and  though  his  food  be  mere  pluck- 
ings  from  the  iron  fist  of  lean-visaged  poverty  !  He  carries  his  indi- 
vidual and  inalienable  treasure  securely  locked  within  the  cunning 
vaults  of  his  brain ;  and  would  laugh  to  scorn  the  puny  force  of 
human  malignity,  should  it  attempt  to  rob  him  of  his  mental  wealth. 

Its  possession  enables  man  to  walk  this  lower  world  an  inferior 
god!  Inferior,  'tis  true,  immeasurably  inferior;  far  beyond  the 
power  of  tongue  to  express  or  of  mind  to  conceive;  inferior  to  Him 
who  created  man  little  lower  than  the  angels  of  heaven,  but  so  little 
lower  that,  when  he  is  compared  with  other  animals,  soul-possessing 
man  walks  this  earth  in  the  shape  of  God,  the  lord  of  all,  vice  royal 
master  below  !    a  mortal  deity  ! 

He  that  is  rich  in  houses,  lands,  floating  wealth,  or  slaves  to  his 
manor  born,  may  be  rich  to-day  and  poor  to-morrow;  all  the  poorer 
to-morrow  from  being  so  rich  to-day.  The  sea,  the  air,  the  earth, 
his  fellow  men  may  drown,  destroy,  engulph  or  steal  all  his  boasted 
riches,  but  the  wealth  of  Education  remains  with  its  possessors  for- 
ever, or  at  least  while  Reason  rules  her  throne. 

As  we  reflect  upon  the  inestimable  value  of  this  great  mental  es- 
tate, this  triune,  and  vital  question  arises :  How,  When,  and  Where 
shall  it  be  gained  ?  How  1  By  diligence,  attention  and  observation  ; 
from  the  lips  and  lore  of  the  learned.  When  ?  In  childhood, 
youth  and  manhood  ;  yes,  it  is  to  be  gained  as  long  as  life  shall  give 
space  for  study  ;  man  was  born  to  learn,  and  though  he  were  to  live 
a  thousand  years,  and  to  gain  the  wisdom  of  a  Solon  or  a  Solomon, 
every  day  of  that  great  existence,  he  would  be  but  little  farther  ad- 
vanced in  the  solution  of  earth's  innumerable  mysteries  at  the  day  of 
his  death,  than  at  the  hour  of  his  birth,  save  in  the  knowledge  of  the 
greatest  of  facts  ;  God  creates  the  soul  immortal. 

Where  shall  the  tree  of  Education  be  planted,  where  cultivated, 
and  where  shall  its  fruits  be  plucked  ?  At  home,  by  the  fireside, 
among  friends  and  kindred  :  in  childhood  and  \Touth,  where  the  ten- 
der love  of  the  mother,  and  the  proud  vigilance  of  the  father  may  be 
Argus-eyed  and  as  sleepless  as  the  fabled  dragoln.  The  mind  of 
youth  has  been  compared  to  wax  which  receives  the  impress  of  to- 
day that  may  be  obliterated  or  defaced  by  that  of  to-morrow.  The 
simile  is  beautiful  but  false,  for  the  impressions  stamped  by  precepts 
or  examples  upon  the  youthful  mind,  be  they  good  or  evil,  are  alike 
life-lasting;  may  we  not  say  eternal?  Should  we  not  rather  com- 
pare it  to  virgin  gold,  pure,  bright  and  unsullied,  upon  which  the  die 
of  the  coiner  may,  at  his  option,  stamp  either  a  blessing  or  a  curse  ? 
And  as  the  impression  of  the  coin,  even  when  apparently  destroyed 
by  age,  and  the  rough  attrition  of  use,  may  be  made  to  stand  forth, 
clear  and  distinct,  by  chemical  agency,  so  the  faded  and  seemingly 
eradicated  impressions  and  influences  of  youth  really  exist,  and  may 
be  forced  into  light  in  after  years. 

Therefore  should  your  young  receive  first  of  all  home  education, 
for  it  is  a  fact,  potent  and  suggestive,  that  those  who   remember  the 


[22  ] 

home   of  their  childhood   as  the  dearest   spot  on  earth,  are  seldom 
found  among  the  vicious  and  depraved. 

It  has  been  the  suicidal  fashion  of  the  wealthier  people  of  the 
South,  till  of  late,  to  send  their  choicest  and  most  talented  sons  and 
daughters  to  schools  abroad,  to  schools  in  the  land  of  their  then 
secret,  noio  declared  enemies;  to  the  schools  and  colleges  of  the 
North.  It  would  insult  every  true  Southern  man  and  woman  to 
assert  that  such  a  foolish  and  ruinous  policy  will  ever  again  be  en- 
couraged. The  errors  and  evils  of  that  system  are  now  too  gener- 
ally known.  But  in  education,  as  in  many  other  things,  there  will 
ever  be  those  who  yearn  for  the  flesh-pots  of  Egypt ;  and  though 
the  lately  wide  spread  practice  of  sending  Southern  children  to  North- 
ern schools  and  colleges,  and  to  Northern  teachers,  may  have  re- 
ceived its  death  blow  from  actual  civil  war,  its  supporters  may  boast 
that  their  beloved  folly  was  so  tenacious,  of  life,  that  no  less  a  spirit 
of  evil  than  Abraham  Lincolnism  could  kill  it! 

I  know  not  how  other  men  may  have  felt  upon  this  subject,  but  it 
has  ever  been  a  source  of  regret,  and  even  shame,  to  me,  as  a  South- 
erner and  a  Georgian,  that  we,  as  a  people,  have  so  eagerly  paid 
tribute  to  the  avaracious  and  most  treacherous  North ;  not  merely  a 
tribute  of  the  purse,  which  in  itself,  is  but  the  tax  that  the  honest 
man,  for  sake  of  quiet,  pays  to  the  sharper,  but  the  tribute  of  the 
mind,  the  tribute  of  intellect,  the  tribute  of  the  god-like  brain  ! 

For  more  than  a  half  century  the  Southern  mind  has  ignominiously 
truckled  to  the  North  in  all  matters,  especially  those  appertaining  to 
Education  and  Literature.  The  genius  and  talent  of  our  gifted  sons 
and  daughters  have  been  forced,  by  dearth  of  home  appreciation,  to 
kneel  like  supplicants  before  the  shrine  of  Northern  approbation. 
The  Southern  author  stooped  to  kiss  the  toe  of  the  great  American 
Pope,  Northern  approval,  that  his  talents  might  be  acknowledged, 
his  works  pronounced  passable,  and  he  be  forgiven  the  great  sin  of 
having  been  born  without  the  pale  of  self-styled  Northern  infallibility. 
So  far  was  this  miserable  subserviency  carried,  that  many  seemed  to 
consider  it  a  species  of  heresy  to  contend  that  the  Southern  born 
could  be  educated  upon  Southern  soil ;  and  as  for  contending  that  the 
Southern  teacher  was  the  equal  of  the  Northern;  oh!  that  was 
abominable  nonsense  !  Yet  we  have  tamely  submitted  to  all  this 
with  a  blind  belief  in  Northern  superiority,  or  in  cowardly  and  cul- 
pable obedience  to  Northern  arrogance.  Was  it  really  a  fact  that 
our  sun  parched  and  paralyzed  the  intellect  of  our  native  teachers  % 
Did  the  inhalation  of  a  pro-slavery  atmosphere  actually  contract,  or 
wither  their  energies  %  Or  were  Northern  teachers  really  superior  1 
Why  did  well  established  institutions  of  learning  flourish  for  a  brief 
time,  and  then  sadly  languish,  fail,  and  die?  It  could  not  have  been 
because  of  a  lack  of  Northern  teachers,  for  statistics  prove  that  they 
swarmed  over  our  land,  as  did  the  Mosaic  locusts  over  the  land  of 
the  Nile ;  and,  in  fact,  were  about  as  beneficial  to  us  and  our  welfare 
as  were  those  plagues  to  the  Egyptians. 


[23  ] 

The  true  and  only  cause  of  the  deplorable  dearth  of  excellent 
schools  and  colleges  in  the  South  was  that  incubus,  that  cancer,  that 
death-ulcer  to  every  effort  of  progress  towards  independence  ;  want 
of  home  encouragement!  This  rot  at  the  core  has  prostrated  many 
a  noble  Southern  enterprise,  otherwise  sound,  long-lived  and 
beneficial ;  and  I,  for  one,  will  applaud  the  cause  that  shall  annihilate 
this  curse  of  Southern  genius,  even  though  that  cause  should  be  the 
trump  of  civil  war,  whose  clarion  note  is  reverberating  throughout 
the  civilized  world.  The  youth  of  the  South  will  then  be  reft  no* 
more  from  homo,  at  a  tender  and  susceptible  age,  by  egregious  folly, 
nor  exposed  to  the  teachings  of  our  enemies ;  enemies  not  only  to  us 
as  a  people,  but  carrying  their  hate  even  to  persons,  and  cloaking 
their  hypocritical  lust  for  wealth  and  power  beneath  a  threadbare 
guise  of  religious  and  political  fanaticism.  It  is  a  subject  of  wonder 
to  me  that  so  many  of  those  of  the  South,  who  were  educated  at  the 
North,  have  become  true  and  faithful  citizens  at  home.  This  I  assert 
boldly,  for  we  have  but  to  glance  for  a  moment  at  the  position  of  one 
as  he  passed  the  ordeal.  Day  after  day,  for  years,  he  drew  his 
learning  from  books  tainted  with  abolitionism  from  preface  to  finis ; 
hourly  he  heard  the  principles,  laws  and  institutions  of  his  home  Te- 
viled,  jeered,  sneered  and  fleered  at,  made  the  laughing  stock  or 
scorn  block  «f  the  learned  or  unlearned.  He  entered  the  house  of 
God  to  listen  to  the  expounding  of  the  Gospel,  but  saw  the  pulpit 
filled  by  some  raging,  ranting  fanatic,  who  breathed  anathemas  and 
not  blessings  ;  who  talked  ©f  ravage  and  ruin  and  not  of  Christianity  ; 
wko  exhausted  the  vocabulary  of  vituperation  in  heaping  epithets  of 
scorn,  hate  and  contempt  upon  the  people  of  the  South,  and  whcse 
salary  seemed  to  be  paid  him  for  no  other  purpose  than  to  compare 
all  pro-slavery  soil  and  people  to  a  vast  Gehenna;  a  se^hing  Golgo- 
tha of  skulls  and  corruption,  a  Tophet  blacker  and  more  dismal  than 
Erebus. 

I  do  not  exaggerate,  but  speak  from  personal  knowledge  ;  I  passed 
through  the  ordeal  of  four  years  heat  unscathed  ;  for  when  I  entered 
it  I  was  past  redemption,  in  the  grievous  sin  of  loving  my  own  native. 
South   more  than  Yankee  soil,  and  Yankee  principles. 

But  enough  of  this ;  let  us  henceforth  congratulate  ourselves  and 
each  other,  not  that  such  things  have  been  bnt  they  are  to  be  no  more. 
Henceforth  we  shall  be  as  independent  in  education  as  in  politics,  and 
it  becomes  a  national  necessity  for  the  Confederate  States  to  support, 
foster  and  encourage  the  institutions  and  enterprises  of  the  Confed- 
eracy. Let  it  be  done  in  all  things  and  at  all  times.  The  Southern 
mind  is  as  capable  of  excellence  in  all  that  it  may  undertake  as  that 
of  any  race,  clime  or  government  on  earth. 

It  has  been  a  popular  delusion  fostered  by  Northern  writers  and 
orators,  and  Core  especially  by  Northern  teachers,  that  it  is  as  im- 
possible for  any  excellence  to  emanate  frem  a  Southern  clime  as  it 
was  that  good  could  come  out  of  Nazareth  in  times  long  ago.  All 
worth,  merit  and  excellence  must  needs  be  born  or  created  in  climes 
where  stone  and  frost  become  crops.     But  history  stamps  this  fallacy 


[  24  ] 

as  a  deliberate  lie,  coined  by  the  North  to  be  the  badge  of  Southern 
inferiority.  I  do  not  undervalue  Northern  intellect ;  the  fact  that  we 
have  so  long  bowed  to  it,  is  its  greatest  praise ;  but  superiors  may 
bend  for  a  time  to  inferiors,  when  deceived  ;  and  in  deception,  in 
treachery,  in  hypocrisy,  we  yield  the  palm  to  Freesoilism. 

But  let  us  prove  the  true  superiority  of  the  Southern  mind  by  his- 
torical facts. 

No  age  of  man,  from  creation  down,  has  produced  a  poet  equal 
to  Homer  of  Greece,  to  Virgil  or  to  Horace  of  Rome  ;  and  they  were 
men  of  the  South.  What  era  of  man's  history  can  show  orators 
whose  fame  can  touch  the  hem  of  the  garments  of  Demosthenes, 
Pericles,  Alcibiades  of  Greece  ;  of  Cicero  or  Hortentius  of  Rome  ? 
and  they  were  Southerners  Who  was  the  father  of  History?  He- 
roditus.  Who  of  letters?  The  Phoenecian.  Who  of  Mathematics? 
The  Arab.  Who  of  Astronomy?  The  Chaldean.  Who  of  Archi- 
tecture? The  Egyptian.  And  all  were  Southerners.  Who  was 
greater  in  his  day,  or  who  more  famous  now  for  his  physical  know- 
ledge than  Aristotle  ?  What  school,  or  rather  epoch,  of  philosophers 
more  renowned  than  Solon,  Socrates,  Seneca,  or  Plato  ?  Who  has 
equalled  the  discoveries  in  mechanical  philosophy  of  Archimedes? 
And  they  were  Southerners.  What  works  of  art  excel  those  of  Phi- 
dias or  Angelo  ?  What  navigators  more  famous  than  Columbus  or 
DeGama?  And  were  they  not  Southerners?  If  we  pass  to  the 
giants  of  the  battle  field,  who  is  equal  in  renown,  in  immense  achieve- 
ments, to  Julius  Csesar,  to  Mahomet,  to  Napoleon  Bonaparte,  to 
Washington?  And  all  were  Southerners.  These  are  by-gone  days, 
but  the  laws  of  nature  are  as  eternal  as  the  race  of  man,  and  were 
we  to  call  the  mighty  names  of  this  century,  I  care  not  in  what  field 
of  excellence,  the  South,  our  South,  were  merit  acknowledged  as  it 
is  due,  with  her  list  of  mental  giants  would  equal  at  least  that  of  our 
present  enemies.  As  for  superiority  in  war,  let  this  contest  tell  the 
tale.  I  have  no  fears  that  the  North  will  be  able  to  say,  when  it 
closes,  "Behold,  a  greater  General  than  our  renegade  chief,  Scott ;" 
and  Scott  is  a  Southerner  !  No  shame  to  us,  no  praise  to  the  North, 
but  eternal  infamy  to  him  whom  they  call  President  of  the  United 
-States,  Abraham  Lincoln  was  a  Southerner!  And  they  have  just 
made  another  renegade  a  Brigadier-General,  and  hold  him  next  to 
Scott  in  value;  J.  C.  Fremont;  and  he  is  a  Southerner. 

Seven  times  has  the  world  been  conquered  by  the  uprising  of 
nations.  Twice  they  were  nations  of  the  North;  five  times  the 
conquerors  were  nations  of  the  South. 

Enough  has  been  said  to  establish,  not  merely  the  equality  of  the 
Southern  mind  with  that  of  any  other,  but  to  convince  the  most  skep- 
tical of  its  superiority.  This  being  the  fact,  it  is  the  duty  of  the 
South  to  trample  under  foot  those  mental  shackles  which  have  so 
long  disgraced  her.  And  the  first  and  most  effective  means  that: 
should  and  can  be  used  is  to  foster,  encourage  and  patronize  your 
institutions  of  learning,  and  in  fact  all  other  branches  in  which, 
hitherto  you  have  paid  exorbitant  tribute  to  the  North. 


[25  ] 

Another  custom,  nearly  as  suicidal  as  that  already  mentioned,  is 
that  of  entrusting  the  educable  youth  of  the  South,  when  taught  upon 
our  soil,  to  the  tuition  of  half  educated  and  incompetent  teachers. 
Again,  some  persons  are  so  ignorant  as  to  look  down  upon  the  pro- 
fession of  the  teacher,  whereas  the  very  name  itself  implies  mental 
superiority,  and  mental  superiority  is  the  aristocracy  of  the  soul, 
which  laughs  at  the  contemptible  vanity  that  calls  its  own  supercili- 
ous clay  of  nobler  dust  thaw  that  of  other  men.  The  fact  is  that  the 
profession  at  the  South  has  been  insulted  and  contaminated  by  the 
intrusion  of  pedagogic  quacks,  who  have  made  the  rostrum  the  arena 
-of  their  temporary  rise  from  the  ditch  of  ignorant  pretension,  and  the 
peddling  of  brass  clocks  and  tin  pans. 

The  existing  war  will  sweep  this  trash  fiom  the  floors  of  our 
schools,  colleges  and  academies,  and  give  place  at  least  in  literature, 
for  the  native  born  and  Southern  hearted  teacher. 

To  you  then,  I,  as  one  of  those  teachers,  and  ranking  myself  but 
as  one  willing  and  competent  to  do  justice  to  your  children,  appeal 
not  only  for  the  support  of  that  college  over  which  I  have  the  honor 
to  preside,  called  to  its  chief  chair  by  its  trustees,  but  also  in  behalf 
of  all  other  similar  institutions. 

Merriwether  County  is  amply  able  to  sustain  most  liberally  both  a 
Male  and  Female  College,  in  addition  to  numerous  minor  and  pri- 
mary schools,  and  while  the  noble  spirit  of  independence  in  Govern- 
ment is  so  aroused,  let  me  appeal  to  your  county  pride  to  aid  in 
building  up  such  colleges  as  I  have  mentioned.  The  teacher  should 
not  be  forced  to  have  recourse  to  a  systematic  electioneering,  here 
and  there,  made  "to  bend  the  pregnant  hinges  of  the  knee  that  thrift 
may  follow  fawning,"  but  let  unanimous  encouragement  nerve  his 
energies,  stimulate  his  pride  and  ambition;  in  brief,  give  him  the 
material  to  work  upon  ;  for  such  good  and  liberal  encouragement, 
though  not  denied  to  be  of  pecuniary  benefit  to  the  teacher,  will  be 
the  means  of  restoring  the  value  of  the  educational  fees  in  fourfold 
proportion,  in  mental  wealth,  to  your  children. 


The  foregoing  able  contribution  to  current  literature,  will  serve  as 
an  invaluable  auxiliary  to  this  humble  effort  of  mine.  As  a  corrective 
of  public  sentiment  elsewhere,  and  of  the  suicidal  practices  that  have 
so  generally  prevailed  at  home,  its  salutary  capacity  is  incalculable. 

In  view  of  the  results  to  be  attained  by  our  revolutionary  struggle,  it 
becomes  evident  that  any  expenditure  of  blood  and  treasure  it  may 
demand,  will  return  us  many  times  its  equivalent,  impoverishing  and 
disparaging  the  North  no  less  than  it  enriches  and  dignifies  the  South. 

Secession  was  the  death-warrant  of  all  the  States  situated  north  of 
Maryland  or  Delaware.  This  the  inhabitants  thereof  now  realize : 
hence  their  desperation — their  futile  attempts  to  recover  by  force  the 
source   of   prosperity — the   inestimable  jewel — which  had  been    lost 

4 


[  26  ] 

through  their  own  moral  infidelity  and  perfidity — their  atrocious  nullifi- 
cation of  the  Constitution  they  had  voluntarily  pledged  themselves  to 
obey.  How  righteous  the  retribution !  We  mock  at  their  insane  raving — 
their  ridiculous  bombast  and  paltry  menaces,  exciie  our  pity,  but  are 
as  incapable  of  intimidating  us  as  is  the  wailing  of  an  infant.  We 
know  that  we  can  and  shall  compel  them  to  yield  that  which  they  were 
too  short-sighted  to  grant  voluntarily.  They  might  have  sustained  their 
dignity  by  recognizing  our  nationality  at  our  solicitation :  having  re- 
fused to  do  this,  they  will  have  to  submit  to  the  humiliation  and  infamy 
of  recognizing  it  at  our  dictation :  They,  too,  hare  learned  a  lesson, 
a  fearfully  significant  one  :  but  while  ours  came  at  a  propitious  moment, 
theirs  came  too  late.  Ages  hence  will  their  languishing  cities,  silenced 
work-shops  and  idle  factories  eloquently  admonish  mankind  of  the 
blighting  tendency  of  fanaticism — of  the  suicidal  consequences  of  per- 
mitting the  prostitute,  though  once  sacred,  desk  to  compete  with  the 
leprous  stump  in  the  use  of  vile  and  libelous  political  slang.  While 
commiserating  the  pauperism  and  distress  pervading  that  doomed  sec- 
tion, we  shall  rejoice  and  thank  God  that  the  tie  which  once  bound 
us  to  it  has  been  forever  severed,  and  our  national  dignity  thus  vindi- 
cated— that  we  are  free  from  an  alliance  so  degrading  and  humiliating. 
To  me  it  is  self-evident  that  the  events  I  have  enumerated,  and  a 
multitude  of  others,  mention  of  which  T  must  omit  for  want  of  time, 
and  to  avoid  greater  prolixity,  constitute  a  symmetrical  chain,  con- 
structed by  the  Great  Ruler  for  the  purpose  of  qualifying  our  Republic 
to  confront  and  subdue  the  combined  obstacles  now  obstructing  the 
luminous  paths  to  its  sublime  destiny.  Since  a  tiny  sparrow  cannot  fall 
unnoticed  by  Him,  it  were  gross  presumption — unpardonable  infidelity — 
to  assume  that  circumstances  so  significant,  and  apparently  so  harmo- 
nious in  their  tendency,  are  attributable  to  mere  chance.  As  He  was, 
millions  of  centuries  since,  no  less  cognizant  of  the  events  now  trans- 
piring than  He  is  at  this  moment,  nothing  could  be  more  reasonable 
than  the  inference  that,  from  the  inception  of  the  abolition  fallacies 
down  to  the  present  period,  He  has  been  so  adapting  successive  circum- 
stances as  to  render  them  all  subservient  to  the  existing  political  exi- 
gency. If,  as  I  believe,  this  conviction  be  generally  indulged  by  the 
people  of  our  Confederacy,  it  is  nowise  surprising  that  they  manifest 
profound  faith  in  their  ultimate  triumph,  and  exhibit  heroic  courage  in 
every  conflict  with  the  enemy.  An  army  confident  of  being  led  by  the 
resistless  Lord    of  Hosts,    becomes    equivalent  to  so  many  Samsons. 


[27  ] 

Hordes  of  mercenaries  inarching  under  the  dirty  banner  of  fanaticism, 
dwindle  in  its  estimation  to  infantile  dimensions,  and  fall  at  the  terrific 
sweep  of  its  weapons,  as  the  grass  yields  to  the  keen  edge  of  the  sythe. 
Why,  the  electric  glance  flashing  from  the  eye  of  a  man  thus  inspired 
with  ten-fold  human  energy,  is  sufficient  to  smite  with  panic  and  put  to 
flight  regiments  of  hired  adversaries !  To  the  startled  vision  of  the 
cowering  Philistines  at  Manassas,  the  "Black  Horse  Cavalry,"  rushing 
with  sublime  impetuosity  to  the  giant  conflict,  each  •  man  thereof  as 
regardless  of  personal  peril  as  if  he  were  a  statue,  assumed  the  magni- 
tude of  a  vast  army,  outnumbering  the  leaves  of  the  forest.  Those 
flattering  themselves  that  they  can  subdue  such  men — or  that  they 
could,  were  their  resources  five-fold  augmented — will  ere  long  deplore 
their  infatuation.  History  presents  nothing  corroborative  of  such  an 
assumption,  and  their  own  experience,  thus  far,  strikingly  demonstrates 
its  profound  absurdity. 

The  Providential  aspect  of  current  events  is  further  evinced  by  the 
uniformly  disastrous  result  of  every  scheme  concocted  by  the  Washing- 
ton conspirators..  They  have  not  taken  so  much  as  one  step,  designed 
to  prejudice  us,  which  has  not  materially  advanced  our  cause,  corre- 
spondingly injuring  their  own.  The  first  fruit  of  their  war-programme 
was  the  transfer  from  their  family  to  ours  of  four  potent  states,  nearly 
doubling  our  population  and  our  defensive  resources.  Were  not  the 
Almighty  impelling  them  onward  toward  the  abyss  into  which  they  are 
destined  soon  to  plunge,  they  would  not  invariably  make  a  false  move. 
Can  any  one  name  a  single  act  of  theirs,  prompted  by  hostility  to  us, 
which  has  not  inured  to  our  good,  and  elicited  disparaging  criticisms  from 
foreign  statesmen  and  journalists  ?  Each  of  these  failures  has  rendered 
us  more  formidable  than  we  previously  were,  by  augmenting  our  confi- 
dence in  our  own  resources  and  in  the  active  co-operation  of  our  Almighty 
ally. 

The  affected  attempt  to  reinforce  Fort  Sumter,  after  assuring  our  Com- 
missioners that  it  would  be  evacuated,  was  designed — as  we  well  knew 
at  the  time,  and  as  has  been  demonstrated  by  evidence  recently  pub- 
lished by  Gov.  Pickens — to  manufacture  political  capital,  and  to  afford 
public  officers,  both  national  and  State,  facilities  for  depredating  upon 
the  public  moneys.  Hundreds  of  such  officers  are,  by  indirect  means, 
accumulating  wealth  with  amazing  rapidity.  It  is  said  that  Secretary 
Cameron  will  make  his  sutler  stratagem  yield  him  at  least  a  score  of 
millions,  should  the   war   continue  twelve   months.     jSo  wonder  these 


[  28  ] 

disinterested  "  patriots1'  denounce  as  "  traitors,"  those  among  them  who 

counsel  peace. 

The  State  elections  subsequent  to  Lincoln's  inauguration  had  evincedi 
an  appalling  re-action  in  public  sentiment,  rendering  it  evident  that  the 
Democratic  party  would  soon  gain  the  ascendency^  unless  it  could,  by 
stratagem,  be  lured  into  measures  suicidal  to  itself,  and  correspondingly 
advantageous  to  its  sectional  antagonist.  The  attempt  to  ensnare  an  ad- 
versary always  recoils  upon  its  author,  throwing  him  back  prodigiously* 
unless  it  prove  successful.  Had  the  Democrats  detected  the  vile  designs, 
of  their  political  foes,  and  indignantly  denounced  them,  they  would 
thus  have  accelerated  the  decline  of  sectionalism  which  had  so  alarmed 
the  mock  Administration,  augmenting  in  the  same  ratio,  their  own 
strength.  But,  lacking  the  average  share  of  sagacity,  they  blindly- 
nibbled  the  bait,  and  the  Lincoln  trap  sprung  upon  them,  as  I  shall" 
show.  The  conspirators  knew,  of  course,  that  we  would  not  so  far  dis- 
regard the  dictates  of  self-respect — so  utterly  extinguish  all  claims  upon 
other  governments  for  that  recognition  of  national  independence  which* 
we  deemed  a  simple  act  of  justice,  and  a  mere  conformity  to  long 
established  usage,  as  to  permit  Fort  Sumter  to  be  reinforced,  despite- 
their  pledge  to  evacuate  it.  They  perfectly  understood  that  such  self- 
stultification  would  be  equivalent  to  the  relinquishment  of  the  nationality 
we  claimed.  Nor  did  they  wish  to  have  us  manifest  such  an  inadequate 
conception  of  our  rights  and  our  duties,  since  we  should  thus  have  de- 
feated their  cunningly  devised  scheme  to  press  into  their  own  ranks- 
their  political  adversaries  at  home.  They  wanted  us  to  reduce  Fort 
Sumter:  and  lest  we  should,  being  taken  by  surprise,  omit  timely 
arrangements  for  doing  so,  they  took  the  precaution  to  notify  Gov.  Pick- 
ens of  the  feint  they  contemplated.  How  a  trick  so  transparent  as  this,, 
could  have  deluded  any  man  of  average  intelligence,  I  cannot  under- 
stand. To  pretend  that  we  commenced  the  war,  by  doing  that  which 
our  enemies  purposely  rendered  it  impossible  to  avoid,  is  to  intimate 
that  the  listener  is  incapable  of  discriminating  between  white  and  black — 
that  he  is  a  consummate  ass.  We  evinced  our  indignation  at  the  atro- 
cious perfidy  of  which  we  had  been  the  victims,  and  vindicated  our 
dignity,  by  reducing  the  Fort  and  hoisting  our  own  flag.  This  served 
to  develop  the  prominent  feature  of  the  ingenious  programme.  Hired 
ruffians  accordingly  paraded  the  streets  of  the  Northern  cities,  clamor- 
ing for  vengeance  and  commanding  Democratic  editors — supposed  free- 
men  to   display   the    "  glorious  national   emblem" — those   cherished 


r  29  ] 

"  stars  and  stripes''  which,  by   "  rebel"  hands  had    been  subjected   to 
"  disgrace  and  ignominy."  Here  and  there  a  dauntless  champion  of  free- 
dom confronted  and  defied  these  audacious  would-be  usurpers  of  his  in- 
dividual rights,  but  the  mass  of  the  assailed  pusillanimously  surrendered 
to  mob  despotism,  and  became  the  obsequious  vassals  of  a  party  which 
they  had  long  been  wont  to  denounce  and  execrate,   as  an  organization 
designing  the  subversion  of  the  Constitution  and  of  the  liberties  of  the 
people.     Who  could  have  believed  that  a  scene  so  humiliating  and  mel- 
ancholy— such  an   abject  relinquishment  of  individual  sovereignty  and 
self-respect — would  ever  be  witnessed  on  American  soil !     The  pretense 
that  such  recreancy  to  the  principles  these  men  had   steadily  professed 
to  cherish  and  venerate,  was  demanded  by  the  alleged  indignity  offered 
at  Fort  Sumter  to  the  national  flag,  was  a  fraud  upon  human  credulity — 
an  insult  to  common  sense.     It  was  resorted  to  as  an  excuse  for  their 
dastardly  obedience   to  the  behests  of  a  gang  of  infuriate  demons — 
representatives  from   the  brothels  and   the  penitentiaries.     Had   these 
editors  been  prompted  by  a  determination  to  vindicate  the  dignity  of 
the  u  Stars  and  stripes,"  they  would  not  have   awaited  the  capture  of 
that  Fort,  but  would  have  evinced  their  indignation  and  resentment  on 
several  previous  occasions,  when  other  Forts  on  our  coast  were  seized, 
and  the  "stars  and  stripes"  in   like  manner  hauled   down.     This  con- 
clusion cannot  be  evaded,  being  perfectly  self-evident.     The  capture  of 
Fort  Sumter  was  incalculably  conducive    to   our  permanent  good,  since 
it  served  to  expose  the  hypocrisy  and  perfidy  of  those  who  had  long 
deluded   us    by  professions  of  "conservatism,"  and  of  hostility  to  the 
crusade    against  our   rights    openly   avowed   by  the   sectional    party. 
Previous  to  this  disclosure,  there  was  a  large  party — perhaps  a  majority — 
in  the  Cotton  States,  that  would  have  acquiesced  in  a  re-construction 
of  the  late  Union,  all  the  guarantees  demanded  by  the  South  being 
yielded,  and  Lincoln  being  deposed  :  but,  on  perceiving  that  the  entire 
people  of  the  North  utterly  ignored   the  great  principles  promulgated 
in  the  Declaration  of  Independence  and  reflected  in  the  Constitution, 
the  Union  men  of  these  States  became  even  more  clamorous  for  entire 
and  unqualified  independence  than  the  original  Secessionists,  and  dis- 
covered that  experience  was  triumphantly  vindicating  the  sagacity  of 
John  C.  Calhoun,  and   other  prominent  South  Carolina  statesmen,  in 
long  since  detecting  the  real  sentiments  and  the  selfish  designs  of  their 
Northern  fellow-citizens.     No  prophecy  in  scripture  has  been  more  lit- 
erally fulfilled  than  have  the  predictions  uttered  by  that  profound  politi- 


[  30  1 

cal  seer  during  the  first  third  of  the  present  century.  Being  confronted 
by  evidence  so  irresistible,  all  Union  men  who  were  not  unmitigated 
bigots,  unhesitatingly  abandoned  their  previous  prejudices  against  that 
intrepid  state,  and  enthusiastically  awarded  its  well-earned  meed — that 
of  acting  as  pioneer  in  the  second  struggle  for  American  Independence. 
Until  the  annals  of  our  country  shall  be  obliterated,  the  name  of  South 
Carolina  will  shine  with  undimmed  brilliancy. 

Perceiving  that  all  the  prominent  men  of  the  North,  with  the  entire 
approbation  of  the  masses — the  late  bogus  "conservatives,"  no  less  than 
the  ultra  sectionalists — were  uncompromising  Consolidationists,  recog- 
nizing no  State  Rights  whatever,  but  insisting  upon  unqualified  submis- 
sion to  the  tyrannical  edicts  of  a  corrupt  and  despotic  majority,  our  ex- 
Unionists  recoiled  in  dismay  from  the  contemplation  of  a  measure  so 
suicidal  as  that  of  re-alliance  with  that  section.  Surely  no  man  more  de- 
voutly cherished  the  hope  that  the  late  Union  would  be  perpetuated,  than 
I  did :  but  I  would  now  unhesitatingly  surrender  my  mortal  existence, 
rather  than  countenance  any  measure  designed  to  renew  the  late  politi- 
cal co-partnership,  under  any  conditions  that  human  ingenuity  could 
devise  :  and  I  question  whether  there  can  be  found  in  all  the  Cotton 
States,  a  thousand  permanent  citizens,  whose  sentiments  on  this  subject 
do  not  fully  concur  with  mine. 

In  a  letter  dated  5th  Feb.  last,  after  several  Forts  had  been  seized  by 
us,  and  an  "  indignity"  to  the  "stars  and  stripes"  thus  offered,  Edward 
Everett  of  Massachusetts,  a  man  unsurpassed  in  his  professions  of  na- 
tional conservative  principles,  inculcated  the  following  noble  sentiments  : 

"  To  expect  to  hold  fifteen  States  in  the  Union  by  force,  is  preposte- 
rous. The  idea  of  a  civil  war,  accompanied,  as  it  would  be,  by  a  ser- 
vile insurrection,  is  too  monstrous  to  be  entertained  for  a  moment.  If 
our  sister  States  must  leave  us,  in  the  name  of  heaven,  let  them  go 
in  peace." 

Less  than  five  months  afterwards,  this  same  man  gave  the  lie  to  that 
voluntary  declaration  of  his.  In  a  Fourth  of  July  harangue,  he  pro- 
claimed not  that  "  to  expect  to  hold  fifteen  States  in  the  Union  by 
tforce  is  preposterous,"  but  that  it  was  the  duty  of  the  mad  zealots  who 
were  listening  to  and  vehemently  applauding  his  atrocious  counsels,  to 
invade  these  identical  States  for  the  express  purpose  of  holding  them  "  in 
the  Union  by  force"  And  w7hy ?  simply  because  only  one  more  Fort 
iiad  been  seized,  and  the  degraded  emblem  of  despotism  dragged  from 
its  flag-staff,  under  the  promptings  of  that  resentment  becoming  men 


[  31  ] 

who  had  been  duped  and  defrauded  by  the  human  vermin  infesting 
Washington.  When  so  prominent  a  leader  thus  prostituted  himself, 
unrebuked,  who  could  doubt  that  all  Yankeedom  was  rotten  to  the 
core — a  putrid  and  fetid  mass  of  moral  deformity  ! 

Lincoln  and  his  Cabinet  seem  to  be  as  innocent  of  statesmanship  as  the 
same  number  of  Indian  squaws.  If  anything  they  have  done  evinces  the 
least  conception  of  that  quality,  it  has  not  yet  transpired  or  it  has  eluded 
my  notice.  His  late  message  to  his  Congressional  minions  is  entirely 
beneath  contempt — purile,  ambiguous  and  mendacious.  (What  a  contrast 
between  that  and  the  dignified,  lucid  and  logical  state-papers  emanating 
from  President  Davis  !)  He  unblushingly  confesses  that  he  has  commit- 
ted official  perjury,  and  absurdly  asks  Congress  to  legalize  the  atrocity, 
apparently  unaware  of  their  inability  to  do  anything  of  the  kind,  other- 
wise than  by  impeachment  and  subsequent  acquittal. 

Had  not  those  in  the  lower  House  been  as  ignorant  as  their  master, 
they  would  not  have  excited  the  ridicule  of  all  sensible  persons,  by  en- 
acting this  white-washing  farce,  in  obedience  to  his  instructions.  With 
unparalleled  effrontery,  he  assumes  that  the  existence  of  the  Union 
preceded  that  of  the  Sovereign  States  which  originally  constituted  it. 
Could  he  have  been  so  densely  ignorant  of  the  history  of  his  own 
country  ?  If  he  was,  he  should  forthwith  relinquish  the  position  he 
now  disgraces,  for  the  purpose  of  entering  one  of  the  primary  schools. 
Under  the  Constitution  which  Lincoln  had  sworn  to  obey,  he  had  no 
more  authority  than  I  had,  to  inaugurate  the  existing  war.  Ex-Attorney 
General  Black,  of  Mr.  Buchanan's  Cabinet,  proved  by  irrefutable  argu- 
ment that  the  Executive  had  no  power'whatever— either  expressed  or 
implied— to  employ  force  against  the  seceded  States.  The  war-pro- 
gramme b3ing  consequently  illegal— a  palpable  contravention  of  the 
Constitution— Lincoln  is  virtually  the  murderer  of  each  man  slain,  on 
either  side,  in  the  prosecution  of  it.  This  startling  fact  is  now  recog- 
nized by  few,  comparatively,  but  the  time  is  not  remote  when  it  will 
loom  up  in  all  its  prodigious  magnitude,  vindicating  its  mighty  signifi- 
cance and  challenging  the  execration  of  the  civilized  world.  The 
thousands  of  his  own  subjects  who  have  been  unnecessarily  and  cruelly 
bereaved  by  his  fratricidal  hand,  will  confront  the  barbarian  and  clamor 
for  that  ample  retribution  which  his  atrocities  have  earned.  The  blood 
of  every  victim  vehemently  "crieth  from  the  ground"  for  justice,  and 
the  appeal  will,  in  due  time,  meet  a  terrible  response.  If  Lincoln 
could,  and  should,  transmute  into  a  ton  of  gold  every  hair  of  his  head, 


[32  ] 

tendering  me  the  prodigious  aggregate  for  the  privilege  of  exchanging 
situations  with  me,  I  would  recoil  from  the  proffered  bribe,  as  I  would 
from  the  malignant  fangs  of  a  viper.  His  doom  is  inevitable :  and 
although  it  will  come  too  late  to  be  of  service  to  him,  it  will  forever 
blaze  upon  the  historic  page — a  beacon-light  admonishing  mankind  of 
the  perils  that  await  the  official  felon. 

The  following  powerful  article  from  the  New  York  News  is  illustra- 
tive of  our  national  resources.  As,  however,  it  is  based  upon  statistics 
collected  eleven  years  since,  a  liberal  addition  should  be  made,  in  view 
of  our  subsequent  progress  in  the  development  of  those  resources. 
The  man  who  can  compress  within  so  small  a  space  such  a  profusion  of 
profound  truths,  fortified  by  arguments  so  invincible,  wields  a  weapon — 
minute  but  mighty — which  is  more  than  a  match  for  any  "  grand 
army"  that  the  traitor  Lieut.  General  can  organize.  Should  the  insane 
minions  of  despotism  essay  to  paralyze  that  formidable  weapon,  they 
-will  experience  a  rebound,  more  appalling  than  any  "masked  battery:" 

STRENGTH  OF  THE  SOUTH. 


During  the  last  few  days  we  have  collected  many  isolated  facts  rela- 
ting to  the  movements  of  Southern  troops,  and  also  some  general  sta- 
tistics indicating  the  aggregate  strength  of  the  Confederate  army,  and 
present  them  to  the  public  to-day.  These  facts,  and  the  inferences  to 
be  drawn  from  them,  if  candidly  considered,  cannot  fail  to  impress  the 
North  with  the  solemn  truth  that  in  the  inauguration  of  the  present 
war  it  has  awakened  to  hostility  a  monster  power  of  boundless  resources 
and  invincible  will. 

Two  hundred  and  fifty  thousand  men  this  hour  bear  arms  for  South- 
ern independence.  One  hundred  and  fifty  thousand  more  have  been 
called  to  arms  by  the  Confederate  Congress,  and  those  who  know  the 
spirit  and  the  temper  of  the  South  in  the  present  crisis  know  that  the 
call  is  not  sent  forth  in  vain.  Home  guard  throng  in  every  county,  city, 
town.  Bayonets  gleam  on  every  puljic  road.  Companies  rally  in  regi- 
ments— regiments  into  armies.  Wide-mouthed  cannon  guard  every 
shore.  Strong  willed  men  line  every  border.  A  whole  people  sleep  at 
night  upon  the  tented  field,  and  rise  in  the  morning  to  the  beat  of  hos- 
tile drums.  These  men,  as  well  as  men  of  the  North,  are  the  sons  of 
those  who  left  their  bloody  tracks  upon  the  Northern  snows,  and  hum- 
bled Britain's  pride  and  power  in  the  war  of  the  Revolution.  They 
are  descended  from  those  strong-willed  barons  who  wrung  guarantees 
for  freedom  from  old  King  John  at  Runnemede.  Right  or  wrong,  they 
see  only  Liberty  as  the  purpose  of  the  struggle  in  which  they  have  en- 
gaged, and  for  that  they  have  consecrated  themselves  to  the  cause  as 
martyrs.     Hence   the  potent,  patent  truth — a  great  Empire,  from  the 


[  33  ] 

Potomac  river  to  the  Gulf,  is  one  vast  military  camp  wherein  strong  men 
throng  in  arms. 

But  the  South  is  not  strong  alone  in  its  numbers  and  its  invincible 
resolution.  She  has  native  resources  of  soil,  abundant  and  inexhausti- 
ble. The  census  of  1850 — the  latest  complete  public  authority  upon 
the  subject — informs  us  that  the  South,  embracing  less  than  one-third 
of  the  population  of  the  United  States,  raised  that  year  wheat  enough 
for  its  entire  population;  that  it  grew  more  than  forty  per  centum  of 
the  entire  corn  crop  of  the  Union ;  and  that  the  value  of  its  slaughtered 
animals  was  nearly  thirty-nine  per  centum  of  the  whole  value  returned 
for  the  United  States.  If  we  add  to  these  the  superabundant  rice  crop 
of  the  Southern  States,  we  have  an  aggregate  from  which  we  deduce,  by 
the  simplest  mathematical  calculation,  the  important  fact,  that  the 
South,  in  proportion  to  its  population,  produces  annually  in  bread- 
stuffs  a  value  more  than  double  that  of  the  North.  She  is,  therefore, 
twice  as  capable  of  self  support  in  a  protracted  war.  Especially  is  such 
the  fact  in  the  present  year,  when  the  usual  export  crops  in  a  great 
measure  give  way  to  staples  of  more  immediate  necessity.  The  facts 
told  by  these  plain,  unpretending  agricultural  figures  are  a  greater  de- 
fense against  war  ship  blockades  than  all  the  booming  cannon  or  hiss- 
ing  shells  that  ever  did  execution  in  the  war  of  man  against  man. 

We  but  state  facts — facts  which  the  humblest  man  ought  to  know — 
facts  which  cannot  be  ignored — facts  which  are  eloquent  with  warning. 
No  prison  house,  no  indictment  can  hide  or  suppress  them.  No  tyranny 
can  avert  them.  No  violence  can  overcome  or  subdue  them.  They 
are  as  inevitable  as  time.  These  things  are.  The  sooner  the  popular 
mind  grasp  them,  realizes  them,  deals  rationally  with  them,  the  sooner 
the  dawn  of  the  morning  upon  us.  This  conflict  is  not  a  short,  and 
will  not  be  a  quick  one,  if  arms  be  the  means  and  subjugation  the  end. 
If  Great  Britain  could  not  subdue  three  millions  of  Americans  in  seven 
years,  the  North  cannot  subdue  eight  millions  in  seventy  times  seven 
years.  The  attempt  is  but  trifling  with  impossibilities.  Is  it  treason  to 
say  it,  since  we  know  it?  Shall  the  people  defy  and  scorn  the  issues 
they  must  meet  ? 

The  News  is  conducted  by  that  dauntless  champion  of  moral  inde- 
pendence who  won  imperishable  renown  by  vindicating  his  individual 
rights,  when  assailed  by  a  howling  mob  of  hired  miscreants.  Such 
articles  as  the  foregoing  are  not,  as  alleged  by  the  miserable  tools  of 
Lincoln,  designed  to  subserve  our  interest,  but  are  evidently  intended 
to  admonish  the  people  of  the  North  of  the  hopelessness  of  their  self- 
destructive  crusade  against  the  South.  Which  of  the  two  should  be 
deemed  the  sagacious  and  sincere  friend  of  the  North — he  who  madly 
urges  it  onward  to  destruction,  or  he  who  indefatigably  strives  to  avert 
its  utter  ruin,  by  calmly  and  lucidly  demonstrating  the  suicidal  tendency 
of  the  infuriate  policv  which  guides  it  ? 

5 


[  34  ] 

After  I  had  written  the  foregoing,  and  was  about  to  add  the,  conclud- 
ing paragraphs,  I  fortunately  met,  in  one  of  the  most  dignified  and' 
able  journals  published  on  this  continent — The  Neiv  Orleans  Bee — the 
following  corroboration  of  some  of  the  views  I  have  presented.  Had 
I  failed  to  avail  myself  of  additional  testimony  so  lucid  and  overwhelm- 
ing, I  should  have  been  self-convicted  of  having  withheld  from  the 
sagacious  jury  I  had  empanneled  —  the  reading  public — "material 
evidence :" 

DESPERATION. 

If  the  people  of  the  South  needed  any  other  encouragement  to  press. 
forward  in  the  glorious  task  of  achieving  their  independence,  than  is 
derived  from  the  almost  unbroken  series  of  triumph  which  have  at- 
tended the  struggle,  it  might  be  found  in  the  desperation  which  marks- 
the  conduct  of  the  enemy.  Their  policy  evidently  springs  from  fear. 
They  have  long  since  passed  beyond  the  calmness  and  moderation  which 
distinguish  men  confident  of  success  and  sure  of  popular  support,  and 
they  are  now  compelled  to  rely  upon  a  system  of  tyranny  and  terror 
in  the  vain  hope  of  overawing  and  silencing  an  opposition  which  they 
dare  not  encounter  with  the  weapons  of  reason  and  of  truth. 

The  record  of  the  Abolition  Government  of  the  United  States  since-, 
the  battles  of  Manassas  and  Springfield  is  hardly  superior  to  that  of  the 
Emperor  of  China  or  the  King  of  Dahomey.  Mr.  Lincoln  and  hifr 
ferocious  satellites  have  been  guilty  of  acts  at  which  civilization  grows 
pale  and  humanity  shudders.  It  might  have  been  hoped  that  in  a  land 
boasting  itself  the  asylum  of  civil  and  religious  liberty ;  and  among  a 
people  claiming  to  be  the  freest,  the  most  enlightened  and  the  most 
tolerant  of  any  upon  earth,  war  itself  would  be  measurably  divested  of 
its  hideous  features.  But  the  miserable  braggarts  of  the  North  have 
been  tested  by  this  touch-stone,  and  now  exhibit  themselves  in  naked 
barbarism  and  brutality.  It  has  been  reserved  for  the  Yankees  to  con- 
duct hostilities  in  a  spirit  of  venomous  and  unrelenting  hatred  such  as 
the  nineteenth  century  had  never  previously  witnessed.  What  are  we 
to  think  ?  What  opinion  will  the  intelligent  Governments  of  Europe 
form  of  the  Lincoln  Administration  when  their  recent  atrocities  are- 
made  known  ?  Just  glance  at  a  few  of  them.  Southern  ladies  of  birth, 
education  and  respectability  temporarily  sojourning  at  the  North,  are 
arrested  as  felons  and  ruthlessly  imprisoned  for  no  other  crime  than  that 
©f  sympathizing  with  the  country  of  their  husbands,  fathers,  or  children. 
Southern  gentlemen,  wherever  found,  are  treated  as  enemies  and  con- 
signed to  dungeons.  The  highest  municipal  authorities  of  a  city  not 
belonging  to  the  Southern  Confederacy  are  torn  at  midnight  from  their 
homes  by  bands  of  lawless  soldiers,  immured  within  the  walls  of  a  fortr 
treated  with  shameful  rigor,  and  subjected  to  many  severe  privations.. 
Within  the  structures  set  apart  as  Bastiles  groan  a  host  of  unfortunate 
beings  whom  the  decrees  of  an  inexorable  tyrant    have  condemned  ta 


r  35  ] 

cruel  isolation  and  imprisonment.  The  law  is  powerless  to  save  them. 
The  "sic  volo  sic  jubeo"  of  a  despot  has  overleaped  the  barriers  of  jus- 
tice, stricken  down  and  annihilated  the  once  potent  writ  which  stood 
between  arbitrary  power  and  helpless  innocence,  and  now  wields  an 
authority  as  absolute  and  irresponsible  as  that  of  the  autocrat  of  all 
the  Russian?. 

Nor  does  this  fearful  list  complete  the  catalogue.  Our  privateers  who 
have  unhappily  fallen  into  the  hands  of  these  Vandals  have  been  treated 
like  felons  of  the  deepest  dye.  In  defiance  of  the  unchangeable  policy 
and  practice  of  the  very  Government  over  which  Lincoln  presides, 
they  have  been  regarded  as  pirates,  have  been  handcuffed,  dragged 
through  the  streets  "of  New  York,  victims  of  the  ribaldry  and  savage 
glee  of  the  rabble,  and  then  thrust  into  prison,  to  await  their  trial  and 
condemnation.  Nothing  save  the  dread  of  retaliation  has  deterred  the 
Lincolnites  from  slaughtering  them  in  cold  blood,  without  even  the  for- 
mality of  a  trial.  Finally,  to  cap  the  climax  and  fill  the  measureof 
outrage  and  iniquity,  the  bloody-minded  Fremont  proclaims  the  entire 
State  of  Missouri  under  martial  law,  declares  that  all  persons  found 
with  arms  in  their  hands  shall  be  court-martialed  and  shot,  and  that 
their  property  shall  be  confiscated  and  their  slaves  set  free.  By  this 
sweeping  statute  he  expects  to  terrify  the  freemen  of  Missouri  into  pas- 
sive submission  to  the  tyranny  of  abolitionism. 

All  this,  horrible  and  disgusting  as  it  is,  proves  that  the  foe  is  hourly 
losing  confidence.  Nothing  but  absolute  desperation  could  prompt 
such  wicked  counsels.  If  the  rulers  of  the  North  were  not  afraid  of 
the  overwhelming  influence  of  an  adverse  public  opinion,  they  would 
tolerate  an  opposition  which  they  knew  to  be  innocuous.  They  would 
not  suppress  newspapers,  and  tar  and  feather  editors  for  advocating 
peace.  They  would  not  discover  formidable  antagonists  in  the  persons 
of  Southern-born  ladies ;  nor  would  they  conceive  it  essential  to  their 
safety  to  seize,  rifle  and  place  in  confinement  every  Southern  man  re- 
turning from  Europe.  A  policy  like  this  is  the  fruit  of  insensate  rage 
and  abject  terror.  The  Confederates  have  hitherto  carefully  abstained 
from  imitating  it.  They  have  perhaps  erred  on  the  side  of  lenity  and 
indulgence,  and  have  not  considered  the  stringent  urgency  of  making 
reprisals.  We  are  gratified,  however,  to  observe  that  our  own  Govern- 
ment has  at  length  been  aroused  to  the  assertion  at  once  of  its  dignity 
and  its  power,  and  that  its  latest  legislation  is  of  a  character  to  make 
the  miscreants  of  the  North  feel  that  retribution  will  overtake  them 
precisely  in  the  form  most  odious  to  their  grasping  and  rapacious  souls. 
The  confiscation  bill  which  has  passed  Congress  will  teach  them  that 
they  cannot  forever  despoil  and  oppress  us  with  impunity. 

Had  the  trembling  beings  in  Washington  admitted,  in  plain  terms, 
their  consciousness  of  the  appalling  perils  that  everywhere  menaced 
them,  they  could  not  have  more  conclusively  demonstrated  the  terror 
which  bewilders  their  mental  faculties  (if  they  have  any)*  than  they  did 
by  resorting  to  such  atrocities  as  those  above  cited.  "Whom  the  Gods 
would  destroy,  they  first  make  maJ." 


[  36] 

Gladly  do  I  relinquish  an-  arduous  effort,  undertaken  in  the  hope  that 
it  might  serve  to  provoke  from  those  more  competent,  a  further  eluci- 
dation of  the  momentous  issues  now  claiming  public  and  individual 
scrutiny.  Its  prolixity — far  surpassing  that  of  any  previous  single  con- 
tribution to  the  press,  of  mine — will,  I  trust,  be  excused,  in  view  of  the 
multifarious  points  involved  in  a  subject  so  comprehensive.  Notwith- 
standing this  prolixity,  I  have -made  but  a  limited  exploration  of  the 
infinite  region  expanding  before  my  bewildered  vision.  Should  I  attempt 
to  exhaust  so  profound  a  theme,  volumes  would  accumulate  beneath  my 
laborious  pen.  I  however  have,  I  humbly  hope,  said  enough  to  facilitate 
its  mental  elaboration  by  the  intelligent  reader. 

New  Orleans,  September,  1861. 


Hollinger  Corp. 
PH8.5 


